it and we wot well it 's a plague in the Generation that we live in and hath much defaced Religion as to it 's beauty in the face of the Conversation of many Ah! how much are they in this conformed to the word And how Lamentably litle behave they like Pilgrims and Strangers in it as the Saints did of old As A Second Use of this point We have ground here to Commend to you the studie of a Soul-fixing fastening condition as ye would not make an unsure bargain with God endeavour to have this softness and melting of heart This thing is that which makes a man to sit alone and to keep silence before God Lam. 3.27 And so to be in a posture of meeting and covenanting with him such of you as know nothing of this and are not afraid of being hard cold and dead at such an occasion are in eminent hazard of losing a good bargain and wo to Security and hardness that hath that as the fruit of it and in the by we may say that there is a Wo abiding many of you who have no Serious thoughts of this frame and especially at such a time Therefore let me Exhort you to compose your selves as having to do with God and as having Gods love and favour and his hatred and wrath laid together in the ballance and as having life and death set before you and seriously to seek after such a soft and tender frame of Soul that fits for Covenanting for renewing the Covenant and for comfortable communicating But some may Object and say It is very sad if this be peremptory that persons who would rightly renew their Covenant and Communicat must be in a Soft and melting frame Answer It 's usefull and it 's needfull nay in some measure it 's Simply necessary What shall we then do that want it for Answer I wish many were asking the question from serious Minding prizing and longing after the thing for the want of Softness proceeds often from this that we do not seriously mind it otherwise the want of it would much affect and afflict us and would put us to ask after it and God would not fail to give them direction that were thus asking the way to Zion Yet for your help in this matter I would say these three Words 1. Once take a view of your case and labour to have a distinct look of it what lusts are up what challenges may be Tabled and keep a good count of them 2. Endeavour to have faith in Exercise on Gods Covenant and promises and be sure that the Promise is sicker that ye lay hold on and see that ye make Use of it according to the Covenant which is done when with your Souls ye take hold of it and that is not nor shall not be reckoned presumptiâ—n when ye bestir your selves from the Faith of Gods Covenant and Promises laying the weight of that which ye would be at on the Promise cleaving thereto for attaining of it and in time through Gods Blessing your unsuitableness shall piece meal wear away and ye shall become tender and any bit of softness and tenderness that ye win at cherish and watch over it 3. Make this a particular errand to God having your Eye on the Covenant of promises and on this Promise in it in Particular and on other promises of this Nature and to this purpose as concerning taking away the stonie heart and giving a heart of flesh of giving you a new heart of making you to loath your selves for all your abominations apprehending receiving and closing with Christ in the Covenant for attaining of it as a fruit of his purchase for it is not gotten but in the Covenant and therefore it 's remarkable that this Scripture is set down Promise-wise They shall come the Children of Israel and the Children of Judah together your Heavenly Father who knows that ye have need of this thing as it is Matth. 6.32 will give his holy Spirit to them that ask him as it is Luke 11.13 And ye would credit and trust him with the performing of that Promise to you and endeavouring to be Serious in having this for your task and work ye shal find it made good for you and to you Jeremiah 50. Vers 5. Come and let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall noâ— be forgotten SERMON IV. IT is a most desirable designe and worthy to be driven vigourously by us all to the prosecution whereof it would very well become us to stir up and rouze our selves and one another according to the Laudable Practice of these here mentioned even to hasten towards a closure of the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and us to have it sounding loud in our ears and to have it as the Language of our hearts whetted to an edge in pursuit of the thing Come let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall never be forgotten It should be the great work and business of a communion-Communion-Sabbath in a speciall manner as it is our professed designe this day to close and make sure this Covenant and blessed bond betwixt the Lord and us Having spoken somewhat formerly at several occasions to these sweet words I shall not now trouble â—ou either with the division or explication of them but shall instantly propose Six or Seven Observations from them and then speak a word to the scope and to the Application of them in the close and though it be but a short word from each of them that we have to speak yet they will be found to be very Concerning to us and therefore we would take the more exact notice of them The First Observation then is that There is such a thing as distinct Covenanting or mutuall engaging in Covenant betwixt God and a poor sinner This is clearly holden out in these words as their Scope It were to no Purpose for them to say Come and let us Join our selves to the Lord in a Covenant if there were not such a thing as a Covenant union of God and sinners The Scripture is full to this Purpose and the treatie of ordinances is kept up for this end as we have it Isaiah 55.1 2 3. Ho every one that thirsts come to the waters c. Incline your ear and come unto me Hear and your Souls shall live and I will make an everlasting Covevenant with you even the sure mercies of David This is the Scope that the Ordinances aim at In Prosecuting of this a little further we shall First Explicat what covenanting is in generall Secondly What this covenanting with God is 1. In respect of the parties 2. In respect of the terms thereof And 3. In respect of the ground on which it is founded And Thirdly To the form of this Covenanting First then Covenanting in generall may be cleared from what-Covenanting among men is Which is a mutuall engaging of two parties on Mutuall terms the one Party offering such
lay hold on this Covenant may expect Communion with God as certainly as Adam before the fall had it for it's the same God that promiseth who is as faithfull as ever he was Hence it is called a word tryed as silver in a furnace seven times a pure word that cometh out of the furnace alwayes as massie and weighty as it went in and the ground of the Covenant being Christs satisfaction it makes it Sure Therefore he â—s called a tryed Corner stone a sure foundation Thirdly It implies that as it is a Sure So it is a compendious and speedy way to happiness of deliverance to the Sinner which maketh much for Gods praise He is a very present help in time of trouble or a speedy help Psal 46. So Psal 32.5 I said saith Davâ—d I would confess my trangression and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Immediatly as if he had said upon my confession without longer delay and Rom. 4.7 This Psalm is made use of to demonstrat the Righteousness which is by Faith in Christ The fifth Observation is That sinners who are lying under a quarrel with God and have the offer of a Covenant should betake themselves to it and without delay pâ—t a close to the bargain betwixt God and them Come say they here and let us join our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant whereby is holden out that when a sinner hath access to the Covenant with God he should flee to it take hold of it quickly In this respect covenanting with God is compared to fleeing in to the City of Refuge Heb. 6. That which I mean is first that a sinner who hath this Covenant in his offer should take no other way for Justification and freedom from sin and wrath but hold to this only and seek to be Justified by it 2. That he should do it speedily when the word of the Gospel saith Come he should answer Lo I come unto thee when God by the Preaching of the Gospel maketh a gracious declaration that he will accept of lost sinners that come to him and saith This is the day of Salvation this is the accepted time as it is 2 Cor. 6.3 and when by his ministers he waiteth on you inviteth and wooeth you ye should presently without delay or demurr close with the offer and accept oâ— the invitation The sixth Observation is that Those who are convinced that they have sinned and would fain be in Covenant with God should endeavour to have it throughed and made sure to have it an absolutely closed and ended bargain This is very clear in this peoples practice who concernedly say Come let us Join our selves in a perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten they think they cannot get it made sure enough and therefore they joyn never to be forgotten to perpetuall they Judged that it could not Possibly be made too sure which manifestly saith that when God giveth an opportunity to enter into or renew a Covenant with him we should be Holily solicitous in very good earnest and greatly concerned to have it made sicker as the words is Nehemiah 9. vers last We make a sure Covenant and write it and our Princes Levits and Priests Seal unto it that word Isaiah 44.5 Is remarkable to this Purpose One shall say I am the Lords and an other shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord That it might stand as it were over his head as being formally and explicitly engaged in with heart and hand and they that know how fickle and inconstant their hearts are and how prone to deal loosely and unfaithfully in Gods Covenant have good reason to look to this that all be sure work that they get not the shell for the Kernell and go not down to the grave with a lie in their right hand The Seventh Observation is That There are sometimes beside other times wherein some People beside others have it pungently Put to them to enter in and to renew their Covenant with God These here spoken of who say having Gods pressing call to it before they said it oâ—e to another Come and let us join to the Lord in a Covenant are put to it more then others and at this time more then at another in a word People are then put to it in a moâ—e especiall manner 1. At such a time when the Gospel is clearly convincingly and powerfully Preached unto them Preaching of the Gospell being Gods way of meeting and treating with sinners and tâ—e Ministers and Preachers thereof being as his ambassadours Commissioned and sent forth by him to treat and close a treaty with sinners on the terms câ—nâ—ained in their Commission which when they with suitable concernedness and earnestâ—ess do their hearers are the more put to it 2. They are thus put to it when some stirring and warmness of affection towards Covenanting wiâ—h God is wrought in them or when their own frame through Grace Presseth them on to it as we may see it did in this People 3. When the Lord oâ—tener then once or twice in frequently renewed opportunities of thi kind Puts People to it and more especially in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the very fight and offer of the elements in the Communion speak plainly on the matter to the Communicants are ye indeed in earnest in the great business of covenanting with God Since ye are now to receive the Seal of it If ye be not ye notably Profane the Ordinance by setting a Seal to a blank charter It is therefore called the Covenant This is the Cup of the New Covenant Because it puts you in mind of the Covenant and puts you to it whether ye will really engage in it It is like the Kings appointing a day for sealing of Paâ—dons to Rebels his Proclamation first Puts them to it to accept of the Pardon Next the heraulds put them to it and then Lastly the set and fixed time or day of the sealing puts them Most of all to it and so it is with you in this Ordinance that we are by and by to be about We come now to the Application of all wherein we shall not insist on all things that these Doctrines Minister ground for but shall Pitch on some most Usefull and which are the great Scope of the Text and of the day And in the First place I would Beseech you to endeavour to gather and compose Your selves and gravely to ponder what it is that this day ye are Pressingly called to It is even this Come and let us Join our selves to the Lord in a Perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten Know and Believe that there is such a thing as Covenanting with God That God is dealing with you to Covenant with him and that it is a good bargain To you is this word of Salvation sent And ye should be very Seriously thinking how to get it accepted and made use of how to receive this offer by
Faith and how to get your selves given up and awaâ— to him because in this Covenant as I shewed before there is a Mutuâ—ll engaging God offers himself and all that is in him to be ours and to be made forth câ—ming for our good and we by Faith close wiâ—h the offer and give up our selves to him to be at his dispose have ye any serious thoughts of this But your selves to it and we in the Name of the Lord put you to it for we cannot well proceed any further till ye be at some point in this are ye in earnest Is this your errand in being here to day If not why are ye come hither Is it to see how the day goeth or is it only to get your Communion as ye use to speak Alace what 's that It 's to Covenant with God and ere ye depart this Place to put it to a point that it may be a closed bargain that should be your errand And therefore in the Second Place we tell you that the great God is content to Covenant with poor fectless and sinfull Câ—eatures whereat ye may wonder and say Is it so in very deed that God will dwell with men on earth Will he indeed Covenant with men with sinfull men with Treacherous dealing men with backsliders Yea we tell you that it is so he is content to be your God and that ye possess all things in him content to pardon you all your sins to give you Grace and Glory even every good thing to enter you heirs to a Kingdome and on good and easie terms to do it freely without Money and without Price If ye be but indeed content to accept of His offer on his easie and very reasonable terms and may not your very hearts laugh within you at the hearing of the glad tydings of this Covenant and that God is yet content to make it up with you O how sappie and Massie is this and that is a very sweet word to this Purpose which we have Psal â—7 6. God even our own God shall bless us which may make the Believer smile This relation of our own maketh the blessing double and it flows from this formal aâ— least real Covenanting and union with God and the Believer hath a right to this and all things He hath here an offer and another sort of right then he hath to his house and land or cloths it 's aright to God that giveth a right to these things I mean a Spirituall right for we speak not now of that which is civill let us therefore stay our selves and wonder and be stirred and affected with it that the infinit and alsufficient God is content to make this good bargain and even now to make it with us Sinners even with insignificant and unworthy us Thirdly We make Proclamation of this bargain to you and avouch that there is Salvation offered to sinners and to be had through Jesus Christ the Lord alloweth and warranteth us to make this Proclamation as well as he did Jeremiah when he saith to him Chap. 3.12 Go and Proclaim these words towards the North return thou back-sliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon thee for I am merciful saith the Lord and will not keep anger for ever He alloweth nay he Peremptorily Commandeth that ye should be put to it and therefore when we have laid the Covenant before you what say ye to it what will ye do We must have an answer from you ye have his word and Oath for confirmation of it O Believe and take hold of it and ye shall get the seal from us as his Commissioners who treat with you according to our Commission in his Name And here we must be particular and be ye particular with your selves take and receive what we say to you with a warrant as the word of the Lord for it is no less his Word now then it was when Jeremiah and the other Prophets spoke it when the Apostles spoke it yea When Christ spake it himself It 's the same Covenant and the same word that this day is preached to you The Lord cals us to stir up our selves and to say in good earnest Come let us joyn our selves to him in a Perpetuall Covenant 1. The party inviting is the Lord Jehovah in the Mediator and sure he is a most yea the most excellent Party thy maker saith he Isai 54.8 is thy Husband 2. There are in this Covenant excellent Promises God is content to be your God and to take you for his people and Spouse to Pardon your iniquity to heal your back-slidings to Sanctifie and save you and to make you eternally happy and are not these desirable 3. It calls you to give your selves up to him and indeed it is very reasonable that if the husband give himself to the wife she should give her self to him Are ye then content to treat with God in the Mediator and to be his on his own terms It is good to meet and treat with God in him Have ye any ground to except against this Doth it please or displease you say to it tell your mind For I declare to you that if ye get him to be yours you must needs be his I fear many of you stand and stick at this notwithstanding the high reasonableness of it is this think ye an evil disadvantagious or Prejudicial exchange whether is it better that the one and only true God reign over you then that Sathan and a multitude of strange Lords your Lusts taking the Throne as it were by turns should reigne over you It 's both sad and stupendious that ever this should be suffered once to come in question or debate and yet Alace it's this or some thing like this at which it will stand either ye will not take God for your God or ye will not give your selves to him to be his People on his own very reasonable and easie terms and I trow ye will make no better I would therefore yet again put you to it for it 's the very thing that ye are called to the great business of the day and it 's come even to the shock And therefore labour to be at a point whether ye will close with him or not If ye will sincerely say we take the Lord to be our God and give our selves to him to be his People and servants then we say to you and assure you in his Name that this Cup that by and by ye are to drink shall be according to his warrant The new Covenant in his Blood And to press you to the thing let me but Ask you a few Questions 1. Is there not need of Covenanting with God Are there not many sins on your score Is there not a quarrell betwixt God and you Is not this bargain meet and suitable for you which holds out remission of sins and peace with God are ye not urgently called to it And what ground of challenge will it be think
the Lords Supper would be so present serious and every way in a posture suttable to that action as if they were never to have the offer or occasian of another Communion As the Lord said to Elijah the Prophet arise Eat for thou hast a long Journey to go So saith the Lord to the Disciples and in them to us Hence-forth I will drink no more of the fruit of the Vine till I drink it new with you in the Kingdom of my Father Ye will get no mo Communions with me here and therefore go rightly about this Improve it well and let a foundation be laid here of a solid standing interest in me that ye may be ready to meet with the tryals that are coming Tenthly Observe That sinners who receive Jesus Christ on the terms he is offered in the Gospell and take the Sacrament for a confirmation of their interest in him and in his Pucchase though they should never have another Communion in this world may confidently expect a joyfull one in heaven I tell you saith he for your consolation though I drink no more of the fruit of the Vine with you here yet the time cometh when ye and I shall drink it new in the Kingdom of my Father Eleventhly Observe That honest Communicants sensible of sin and content to take Christ on his own terms are called to be cheerfull and to cheer themselves in the lively hope and expectation of Heaven And a Believer though a sinner that takes this way should take his communion as a Seal and Pledge confirming him in the Faith and hope of his being ere long to have an eâ—ernal and unin errupted Communion with Christ in Glory In these Observations Ye have a short hint of the Treasure that Believers have in Christ and from them ye may gather what a full Christ a full Covenant and good bargain ye have who have really closed with him ye have a most liberal and Richly bounâ—ifull Mediator who hath put all these great things and many mo into his Testament to sinners offered to them in the Gospel and Sealed in the Sacrament of his supper to all them that take him and rest Satisfied with him for which satisfaction there is all the reason in the world And therefore to come in particular Application to the Use of all There is â—ere good and large ground to speak a litle to these Three 1. To Bring forth to you the good news of Salvation through Christ 2. To Exhort and press you to embrace and accept of them with gladness of heart to make welcome this Faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners 3. To Comfort aâ—d solace sinners that have betaken themselves to Christ in the abundant consolation of this Covenant and in the administration of it and in the Mediator the great subject and Substance of it and seeing it may well be said here who is sufficient for these things ye would have an eye to him who can make this Gospel to savour sweetly and even triumph The Commission to preach it is his the Ordinance and Institution is his and if there be any appetite for your food amongst you any sense of sin and desire of Communion with Blessed Jesus here and of Communion with him in Heaven hereafter Look O look up to him and beseech him to Breath on his own Ordinance and to back this word with life and power The First Use Then serves to bring forth to you this day the good news of Salvaâ—ion through Jesus Christ O sinners by this Gâ—spel and Testament of Christ and by the Administration of this Ordinance we have good news to tell you This is the New Testament in his Blood which is shed for the Remission of the sins of many I shall endeavour to hold forth to you the goodness and gladness of these news and tidings in these Three and would to God we had sensible sinners to Believe receive and welcome them 1. That there is a good bargain thorow Christ to be gotten by sinners 2. That sinners by accepting of Christ have sufficient warrant and good security for applying to themselves and making use of this good bargain 3. That Christ is most willing and desirous that sinners should close with this bargain and make use of him and of his Righteousness for atâ—aining the Pardon of sin and for making themselves happy everlastingly For the First Sinners here is a good bargain to you thorow Christ glad tidings of great Happiness fear not saith the Angel to the Shepherds Luke 2.10.11 Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shal be to all People for unto you it born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Yea we have these good news to preach to day Behold to us hath died a Saviour and he hath made his Testament and hath lefâ— a most ample Rich comfortable and Blessed Legacy and is not this a good full bargain Which will be clear if ye consider First The reall woâ—th of it is there any thing a sinner can stand in need of but it 's here or any ill that a sinner can be under but there is here a remedie for it Is it the sense of sin feat of Justice felt Wrath the Apprehension of Hell Here are glad tidings Remission of sins by the Blood of Christ This is the one Express Article of the Testament here We tell you sinners there is a Saviour whose life hath gone for sin and there is a free absolution to be had by vertue of his Blood to all who will lay hold on it Secondly Ye have the Covenant to make it sure and Remission of sins is Particularly mentioned in it for your satisfaction Nay look what ever further is in the Covenant and ye have it also upon your closing with Christ according to his Divine power he hath saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.3 given unto us all things that Pertain to life and Godliness and vers 4. Exceeding great and Precious Promises are given us Promises of Justification and Sanctification what a bundle of Promises have we Ezek. 36. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and wash you from all your uncleanness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you and will cause you to walk in my statuts and do them c. There are Promises of subducing of the Body of death of circumcising the heart of causing to love God of putting his fear in the heart of healing back slidings These and many mo are Articles of this Testament which as they are very comforting so are they very frequent and abundant in the Covenant This word of God is as it were the Index and Catalogue of them and in effect there is not a Promise in the word of God but it is here Thirdly There is yet something more and that is the Promiser himself is left in Legacy Which no other Testator doth This is my Body saith he
Proclaim liberty to the Captives to give to them that mourn beauty for Ashes the Oyl of joy for Mourning and the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness and this is called the Proclaiming of the acceptable year of the Lord Wherein all the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity concurr as is clear vers 1. Consider Secondly All his Offices and ye will find that they Preach and Proclaim the same thing his Name is Jesus because He saves his People from their sins He is King Priest and Prophet for this end and what saith his Preaching and Corrospondent Prayer John 17. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me but that he would fain have them there And what shall I say Is there any proof of it that can be given beyond His Death I lay down my life saith he for my sheep The Salvation of lost Elect sinners went very near his heart Therefore when none in Heaven nor on earth can help then saith he Lo I come to do thy will O my God Thirdly Consider with what Pleasure and delight he went about the work of Redemption As is very clear in that 40th Psalm where he heartsomly saith Lo I come I delight to do thy will I even hasten to undertake it And when he is come he saith John 4.34 It is my meat to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work and what work was that Even to lay down his Life to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel to take away the seud that was betwixt God and them and to Reconcile them to him and when it cometh to the very push of actuall laying down his life He will not open his month to divert it though he might have commanded more then twelve Legions of Angels yet he would not do it for this cause saith he Came I into this World Fourthely Consider the end of all the Ordinances wherefore are they instituted what saith the word but that Thorow this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins What say Ministers but that We are Ambassadours in Christ stead beseching you to be Reconciled unto God Which evidenceth Plainly that Christ would fain to speak so have peace made betwixt God and sinners and them saved and what saith the Sacrament but even the words of the Text This is the new Covenant in my Blood shed for the Remission of the sins of many And can we think on the end of these Ordinances but we must also think on Christs willingness that sinners should make Application of him and of his Purchase Fifthly Consider further How he esteems of a sinners coming to him There is saith he Joy in Heaven at the Conversion of a sinner We may say that it is the gladness of his heart when any sinner cometh home to him Therefore it is said that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand and he shall see of the travel of his soul and be Satisfied Isaiah 53.10 11. It is Satisfaction to him for all the Travel of his Soul to see sinners coming in and getting good of him and in the Song He is said to feed in the Gardens and to be gathering lilies Yea that the day of Souls being espoused to him is the day of the gladness of his heart Sixthly Consider how weighted to speak so with reverence to him our Lord is when sinners will not make use of him it 's accounted by him as it were an affronting of him Even a troading of the Blood of the Covenant under foot and an accounting of it to be an unholy thing a sort and degree of doing despight to the Spirit of Grace He who could look sometimes on the wrath of God and not shed a tear yet when he came to Jerusalem weeped over it And upon the other hand O! what complacency hath he in a sinners coming home to him which makes him sweetly smile and rejoice Seventhly Consider his exceeding great forbearance toward sinners while they are straying and his exceeding heartie welcoming of them when they return Let an inquest to say so be led on his Procedure with all the hearers of the Gospel that are here on earth and with all that are in Heaven and hell and all of them will be constrained to subscribe to the truth of this that he is full of long-suffering Doth he not spare even the vessels of wrath fitted to distruction And doth He not only spare his own but Pity them as a Father pitieth his Children And that wonderfull wescom of the Father to his Prodigal Son is nothing to Christs welcoming of a repenting sinner being but a dark Resemblance of it He casts not up to him his bygone faults Neither sayes what is this you have done miserable wretch No such word but This is my Son that was dead and is alive that was lost and now is found Believe it O Believe it which is the very scope of the Parable Our Lord Jesus is as glad in a Holy way at a sinners coming home Eightly Consider how easie our Lord is to be pleased with any honest mint or essay that is made of returning to him He is so very willing that a sinner make Application of his Righteousness that where there is reality he will as it were take half a Faith for Faith were it even but like a Smoking flax or bruised Reed or a grain of mustard seed He will take a sincere resolution to confess for the confession of sin which is clear Psalm 32. I said saith David I will confess my Transgression and thou forgavâ—st the Iniquity of my sin If he had proposed the offer of life on such terms as would have wearied us all our dayes we ought to have Judged him willing that we should partake of it for it cost him very dear But when it is not Abrahams Faith only but any Faith how weak so ever if sound that he graciously accepts How doth it set forth his great willingness Him that cometh to me saith he I will in no wise cast out The word is doubled in the Original I will not Not to shew the holy passionatness of our Lords desire and his exceeding great willingness to have sinners closing with him So Isaiah 45. Salvation is promised even to a Look look unto me all the ends of the Earth and be Saved and if sinners cannot well look think but honestly and let their heart yeeld and it shall be a bargain He that is athirst let him come Revel 22. And if there be scarce the pain of Hunger or Thirst The Spirit and the Bride say come and whosoever will let him come and take of the Water of Life freely And this willingness is nothing else but the thought and desire of an heart consenting to accept of his offer Or if this be not litle enough there is less yet Psalm 37.7 Rest in the Lord the word as it is on the Margent and Psal 62.1 is be
embraces satisfie you at all times and be ye always ravished with his love and beware of embracing the bosom of a stranger let him be to you as a bundle of Myrrhe lying all night betwixt your breasts be for him and not for another so shall he be for and with you resting in his love and rejoycing over you with singing 2. Touch no unclean thing hate the very garment spotted with the flesh abstain tenderly from all appearance of evil O defile not those Temples of the living God of the Holy Ghost which Temples ye are let no unclean thing be harboured or tolerated there nothing that may provoke him to leave or loath his dwelling and Temple nothing that may make his abode in them grievous unpleasant lothsome or wearisome to him 3. Let all his Ordinances and duties of his worship be high in your esteem and much commended and even endeared to your hearts as means of Communion and fellowship with him O be much in love with the habitation of his house and the place where his Honour dwels let his Tabernacles be very Amiable to you these are his haunt and let them be yours 4. Beware of all sinfull dalliances with Idols whereby the Soul is estranged from Communion with God for there is no agreement betwixt the Temple of God and Idols from love to fellowship with him and from zeal to his Glory bid them all with indignation be gone saying to them what have we any more to do with Idols and as to a menstruous cloth get you hence 5. When He hides his face withdraws his presence and suspends you from fellowship with him be troubled arise shake off laziness sloth and security be Holily restless and go the round as it were of all Commanded duties till you find him seek him diligently in the night watches on your bed go forth to the streets and broad places go to the watch men and seek him whom your Souls love you will have gone but a little and you shall find him and when you have found him hold him and let him not go do not awake nor raise him till he please 6. Study to be very humble tender and contrite of heart to be poor in Spirit constantly sensible of your Spiritual poverty emptiness wants and indigencies and to tremble at his word at commands lest they be not suitably obeyed at threatnings lest they be executed at promises lest you seem to come short of them for it is in persons thus qualified that he delights to dwell and it is to such that he loves to look as is very clear Isai 57 15. and 66.2 7. Love prize improve and as ye have accesse study to keep up as you Sister in Particular are helped through Grace to do beyond many the Communion of Saints those excellent ones of the earth in whom next to his own blessed self all your delight should be in Communion with those Saints Communion with the King of Saints is readily attained it being there that he Commands the Blessing even life for evermore 8. Be much in the lively exercise of Faith in and of love to the Lord Jesus and be Spiritually precise strict exact accurate and punctual in obedience to all his Commands from Principles of Faith and love and Christ and his Father will love you and come and make their abode with you as he promiseth John 14.21 23. O! desirable Guests and worthie of all possible welcome of all ready and cheerfull entertainment follow hard after him constantly and closely pursue conformity to him and Communion with him It is but a litle and the conformity to him shall be compleated and you likened Perfectly to him according to creature capacity and the Communion with him which is now but in Part as all the spirituall priviledges and enjoyments of the People of God while upon earth are shall be fully perfected shal be Immediat without the intervention of the Comparatively dark Glass of Ordinances even to seeing him face to face and as he is and shall be eternally uninterrupted without the least cloud or moments Ecclipse now it is a Cloud a clear day a sun-blink and anone a shower rara hora brevis mora a rare hour but quickly gone It shal not be so then O desirable and delightsome day O sweet singularly sweet and solacious day O Rare and Ravishing day let all other dayes pass and hasten away and let that Glorious day come Even so come Lord Jesus and tarry not I am Beloved Christian Friends and dear Sister Your very affectionat Friend and Seriously well-wishing Servant in the Gospel J. C. Feb. 4. 1685. I heartily wish that this mite of service may be acceptable to the Saints it being not improbable that it may be the last service of this kind that I shall have access to do them A Preparation-Sermon FOR THE COMMVNION 1 Cor. 11.29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body IT hath been so ordered in the good Providence of God that ye have lately heard of that main very comprehensive and indispensibly necessary duty called for from all that would worthily partake of the ordinance of the Lords Supper for which we are now making ready viz. Self Examination In reference to which the Apostle having perceived many faults and failings in these Corinthians and much unsuitableness as to their communicating gives advertisment that whoever for the time to come would aright approach to the Table of the Lord would examine themselves and so eat and knowing well that this is a difficult exercise and that there is naturally a great deal of averseness in peoples hearts from it he Judgeth it meet to Press the exhortation to that necessary though difficult duty by a reason or Motive set down in the words now read in your hearing For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself As if he had said you had need to look well to the examination of your selves for if ye neglect or miscarry in that duty your hazard and danger is dreadfully great through unworthy communicating which if ye would escape then make conscience narrowly and carefully to examine your selves The last words of the verse are a confirmation of the reason and do shew why the Lord is so holily severe in punishing and Plaguing those who approach to this Table unworthily through not examining of themselves because They discern not the Lords Body The force whereof is that there is a most singular and graciâ—us presence of the Lord Christ in the Sacrament of his Supper and therefore the person who goes not aright about it doth put a great disrespect upon yea doth even vilifie him who is thus present in that ordinance It is the first Part of these Words that at this time we would mainly speak to wherein we would explicat the meaning of these three 1. To eat and drink unworthily here is to eat and drink unsuitably
but generally there is a greater Ignorance Darkness and Blindness as to the right partaking of this Ordinance then as to most others either thorow the difficulty of it or through our Laziness that puts us not to study it better So that if it were asked at many of us who may have some affection what is a Communion And what is the right way of partaking of it there would be found but very little distinctness in the thing and many content themselves to live without clearness about it And this makes people incapable to go about it aright A Fourth reason is from Peoples loathness to bestir themselves in the wo k of Preparation for it There is some Self examination requisite for every Duty but there is a more Solemn Self examination injoyned in reference to this and how very reluctant are we to it And seeing examination of our selves is as the door and entry to this Duty is it any wonder that most Persons Communicat unworthily This exercise of Self-searching being so much slighted which is to the most part so very difficult and to many through their own fault impossible The First Use Serves for warning as to this matter It is easie to get a Token and to come to the Table but it is not so easie To Eat and Drink worthily not so easie to discern the Lords Body and to get Christ himself in the ordinance and in a word so to go about partaking of the Lords Supper as ye may have solid quietness of mind in reflecting on it Is it not a wonder then that the most part doe so securely and in a manner even desperatly rush upon it who have it may be lyen some Ten some Twenty some thirty years without trouble under this guilt We would think it a good piece of Preparation if ye were Seriously afraid to become guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord want of this holy fear breeds security and keeps from stirring up to dutie and from reflecting on our selves whereas if the heart were stirred and rouzed with such a fear there would be greater and more seiously sharpened diligence in all these duties whereof we heard from the foregoing words to which this is a strong and pressing motive The Second Use Serves for Tryal who among the great company gathered together here this day are afraid of siâ—ning against God and taking his Name in vain in so Solemn an Ordinance many think they are prepared but we think not that person the better prepared that is not afraid and holily jealous over himself Wo wo to many on the account of Communion-dayes that are past and gone without fear It were good that ye were afraid lest this day prove to be like many former dayes and lest any of you come short of what hath been attained in former communion dayes Thirâ—ly Observe That the sin of unworthy Communicating is a Wrath provoking and a Judgement-drawing-on-sin He that Eates and Drinks unworthily Eates and Drinks Damnation to himself There is hardly any sin that the Lord will more readily speedily and Sadly Plague and punish then this It s true the Lord haâ—h annexed haâ— Certification to the third Command That He will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain but iâ— there any Ordinance wherein the Threatning is more expressed and in reference to which the Judgement hatâ— been more seveâ—ely some way indifferently inflicted As is clear whether we read before oâ— after the words of the Text And there is good reason for it For first If the duty be more Solemn if the presence in it be more gracious and the bounty that fl wes in it be more abundant then sure the sin of abusing or of unbecoming going about it must be the greater Secondly if we look to the sin not only in respect of its greatness in â—everal other respects but in respect of the Nature of it It s a more direct disrespect put upon and despight done in some respect even unto Christ It s to be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord It as if the Spear had been in such a mans hand that pierced Christs side and as if he had driven by his own hand the Nails thorow His Hands and Feet The reason is because Christ in this Ordinance brings himself and his death so very near that the sinâ—er is put to it in a speciall mâ—nner either to receive him or to refuse and reject him and when he refuses and rejects him he thereby Practically sayes that he makes but very litle or no account of him at all and that if he had been living in those dayes when He was crucified he would also have joiâ—ed with the Multitude and cryed away with him Thus such an one Crucifieth the son of God a fresh and puts him to an open shame O hainous and horrid guilt The First Use Serves to allarme you that if the fear of sin will not prevail with you the fear of Judgement of Gods curse and wrath and of the vengeance of the Mediaâ—o represented in this Ordinance very clearly as crucified and bleeding out his precious life or sinners Here and eternally hereafter may prevail with you to be serious in the work ye are now called to Let me which is a Second and more particular Use of the Doctrine advise you as to examine your selves seriously in reference to all your other wayes so to take a Speciall look of your bygone Communicating O! that many of you who are so whole at the Heart that there is no provoking nor wakening of you and who are so sensless that ye scare at nothing could be prevailed with to charge your selves with this horrid sin of being guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord That thereby ye may be awakened It will certainly one day awake you therefore in your Self examination take speciall notice if ye have not Communicated unworthily make Special addresses â—o God for removing of this dreadful Guilt and have a special eye for the time to come that ye fall not in it I say again take a speciall review of your bygone carriage in this Ordinance and say to your selves whether are we Guilty of this sin and whether are we in Hazard to â—all into it of new And to stirre you up to this Consider 1. What temporal strokes from God have come or may come for it who knowes but our outward captivity the Blood that hath been shed the many new and unheard of or but very little heard of diseases that are among us have in a great Part been for this Sin Secondly know that beside temporal Strokes on the outward man ye may fall under Spiritual Plagues the Lord may blast the Ordinances for the time to come that they shal do you no good and He may last any part and gift that ye have He may make your Ears dull of heaâ—ing and your Eyes blind and your Hearts fat And if ye quench any convictions that ye
souls in a manner flighter within you and make you to rouze up your selves to welcome them with gladness of heart And therefore First we would exhort you all to believe this report there are alace but few who doe indeed believe that the Eternal God hath this design of a marriage betwixt him and sinners Therefore let not your hearts be straitned only believe that this is the good word of God that these are the faithful true sayings of him that cannot lie and that he is waiting on to ratifie them to all who give them Credit It 's somewhat hard to deliver or receive a word of threatning in faith but in some respect more hard to believe a word of Promise and of consolation It is Proportionably hard to look upon this as Gods own offering of a marriage with his Son as if he himself were by vive voice speaking it out of Heaven and to believe that this offer is really his and therefore as I desire as his Servant to speak to you so I would again and again Obtest you to be rouzed up and to rouze up your selves to believe it Secondly Rouze stretch and enlarge your understandings and your hearts and affections for beholding conceiving and embracing this rich bargain of Grace O! consider seriously from whom it is For what end it is how it is brought about and doth come to you the height and Depth the Length and breadth whereof is inconceivable be Holily amazed and wonder that the offer of this marriage comes to you and that he is content to marry you Thirdly In a word would you know what we have to do with you or what is our commission to you this day This is even it to tell you that the King hath made a marriage for his Son and hath prepared and made all things ready for reuniting you to himself yea this same King that hath made this wedding ready and hath carved out this way of throughing his designe by speaking to you in his Word by his servants speaks to you by us and we speak to you in his name and tell you thaâ— our blessed Lord Jesus is wooing you we declare publish and proclaim it O! take notice of it our Lord Jesus is not far to seek he is here waiting on to close â—he bargain wâ—th you This is our errand to proclaim these glad tâ—dings to you and what glader tydings could yoâ— wish then to have it told you thaâ—â—e may be happy and easily happy and that if ye be content â—o be so theâ—e is noâ—hing that might marâ—â—his happiness but it is â—emove and taken ouâ— of the way Is not the Faâ—â—eâ— ready He hath given his consent is noâ— the Bridegroom ready when he hath done so much and is waiting on your consent the Feast is ready and the Garments are ready and there is nâ— more to do but t take and put them on aâ—d faâ—â—h exeâ—cised on him wâ—â—l 〈◊〉 both the Conâ—ract is ready and there is nothing â—o 〈◊〉 changed oâ— altered in it and He is ready to accepâ— oâ— you if ye will accept oâ— him our blessed Lord Jesus says he is câ—nâ—eâ—â—â—o marry you and there is no more to do but to subscâ—ibe your name to the contract iâ— you want clothes he will give them to you â—f ye want a house if ye want meat or drink he will provide for you what ever it be that you really stand in need of for Soul or body in time oâ— eternity ye shall have 〈◊〉 from him The promises aâ—e filled with all things thaâ— pâ—â—â—ain to life and godliness to hâ—s life and to thaâ— which is to come there is in effect n thing wanting but your consent and let not tha be wantng I beseech you Iâ— prosecuting this purpose I shall speak a litle 1. Tâ— those to whom the offer is made or to those whâ—â— a e called 2. To whaâ— they aâ—e called â—o 3. To the terms on which they are called 4. To the manner how ye should come 5. To the Peremptoriness of the call and to the necessitie of coming And 6. If it be Possible to win at it a word to some motives whereby ye may be Pressed to come and not to neglect the opportunity of such a Precious Season of Grace For the First it is not one or two or some few that are called not the great only nor the Smal only not the holy only nor the Profane only but ye are all bidden the call comes to all and every one of you in Particular Poor and rich high and low holy and prophane Ho Proclaimeth the Lord as it were with an Oyas Isa 55.1 Every one that thirsts come and he that hath no money Let him come whosoever will let him come and take of the water of life freely Rev. 22.17 Our blessed Lord Jesus is not straitned in his call and we may humbly say in some measure that we are not straitened in our bowels in his name we invite all of you and make offer of Jesus Christ to be your Husband that ye may have a room among them that stand by and be with him for ever I say we make this offer to all of you to you that are Atheists to you that are Graceless to you that are Ignorant to you that are Hypocrits to you that are Lazie and Luk-warm to the Civil and to the Prophane We pray We beseech We obtest you all to come to the wedding Call sayeth the Lord the blind the maimed the halt c. Bid them all come Yea compel them to come in Grace can do moe greater wonders then to call such it cannot only make the offer of the Marriage to them but it can make up the Match effectually betwixt Christ and them We will not we dare not say that all of you will get Christ for a Husband but we do most really offer him to you all and it shall be your own fault if ye want him and go without him And therefore before we proceed any further we do Solemnly Protest and before God his Son Jesus Christ take instruments this day that this offer is made to you and that it is told to you in his name that the Lord Jesus is willing to match with you even the profanest and most graceless of you if ye be willing to match with him and he earnestly invites you to come to the wedding if you can touch at any thing on his side that is not ready or at any thing on your side but it may through grace be made ready if ye will come you may but its impossible for the Covenant is well oâ—dered and sure and that in all things and these words are not the words of men but the Words of the true and faithful witness which ye must count and reckon for when we are dead and gone He hath killed his Oxen and Fatlings and prepared his dinner and bid his guests all things are ready in the due order
with our Lord among which this is one I wot not If I be in the Covenant and Contract of Redemption I know not if I be one of Gods elect Ans What is this ye know not well what ye say have ye any thing to do with that secret by a leap and at First hand are ye not called to Marry Christ Is not that his revealed will to you I protest in his name this is the thing that ye are called to and will ye make an exception where he has made none Or will ye shift obedience to a clear command upon a supposed decree which you cannot know but by the effects Will ye reason so in the matter of your eating and drinking upon a supposition that God hath decreed that ye shall die to Morrow or within a few dayes will ye this day not take your dinner nor make use of any refreshment till that supposed day come Or because ye know not if God hath appointed you to live so and so long Will ye forbear therefore your callings Or will any of you in seeking after a match in the World reason so Will ye not seek after nor Marry such a Woman till ye be clear that God hath decreed her to be your Wife When or whom would ye Marry at this rate of reasoning But 2. Because there is a sort of facultie and facilitie here to dispute against God I answer by way of question were there ever any that had that doubt cleared to them before they came to Christ whoever would have come to him if they had stayed till that had been taken out of the way Or hath the Lord told that to any before they came Hath he said to them believe for ye are Elected but his method is thus believe and ye shall know in due time that ye are Elected 3 Is there any that can say that the offer or the refusall of the match depended on this If any of you will say because I was not elected he refused me He will answer How often would I have gathered you And there will need no more ground for sentencing Professors of the Gospel to destruction then this Man woman thou hadst the offer of the Gospel and refusedst it therefore go to thy place he will not Judge you according to the decree of reprobation but according to his call and your disobedience to it And further ye may take Christs Answer to this Objection from John 6.39 Where there are two wills or rather two things willed of equal extent betwixt the Father and Christ in the Covenant of Redemption under which all the elect come The First is vers 39. This is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing But as if he had said this is not it that ye have to do with at first hand Therefore vers 40. He sayes And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and Believeth on Him may have everlasting life Not that all the elect should know that they are elected before they Believe but that he that Believes in Him may know that he is Elected He gives the same promise to them that Believe that is given to them that are Elected and they are distinguished because He would have them to come under distinct considerations And now to conclude Is there not need great need to come and have ye not good warrand to come Lay by therefore seeking satisfaction to sense and carnal reason and â—hile the Lord sayes All things are ready come to the Marriage It will be greatly to your prejudice to sit or shift the invitation ye have the Contract laid before you alter not the Terms dispute not delay not This is our Commission to you to day We tell you that the King hath made ready for the Feast yea all things are ready come then and let there be no more debate about the matter if ye will but say it and say it in earnest Here Lord Jesus I give up my self to thee and though my consent be now but confused I shall endeavour through Grace to give it more clearly and distinctly another time It shall go well with you only deliver up your selves to him and in the Lords Name I tell you that ye shall be dearly welcome as many as come humbly lothing themselves wond'ring at the free Grace of God and Highly esteeming of Precious and lovely Jesus and adventuring to hazard their souls on him on his own terms and to take him for their Husband and Lord It shall not be accounted Presumption in them so to do nay as it is Cant. 3. The bottom of his Chariot is Paved with love and it 's for the daughters of Jerusalem It is made for carrying and keeping Believers leap hither if I may speak so and ye will fall soft into a sweetly Perfumed and soft bed even in the arms of Christ There was never a Carpet never a feather or doun-bed so soft as that is only come and cast your selves over on it Though ye think that ye cannot apprehend and take hold of him He can and will apprehend and take hold of you and He is so very tender hearted that he will kisse you and even weep over you for joy as it were on your neck and if ye have no Garments Rings or Jewels to speake so to adorne you He will give these to you Come forward then come O! come and let it be a day of Covenanting with him and in signe and token thereof give up your names to him and for confirmation take the Seal of His Covenant the Sacrament with your hand and bless Him with your heart that so heartily welcomes you and the blessing of God shall come upon you that come on these terms A SERMON Preached after the Communion On PHILIP 1.27 Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ THere are two great works that the Ministers of the Gospel have to do one is to engage People to Christ and to perswade them to receive him and close with him The other is to induce them to walk worthy of him Col. 2.6 As ye have saith the Apostle received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in Him Paul through the hand of the Lord with him had engaged the Philippians to close with Christ and as it were to conclude the Contract betwixt him and them and now being aged and in Prison and not knowing certainly if ever he shall see them again He commends this to them in a speciall manner whether he see them or be absent from them that only they would let their Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ As if he had said ye are priviledged with the Gospel and have embraced it and are eminent in the Profession thereof let me therefore beg this of you that your Conversation may be answerable to it The adverb only intimats to them that this was so necessary
this would be a conversation worthy of and becoming the Gospel nay it would make a litle Heaven on earth And we desire to to be as pressing and peremptory in calling for this from you as ever we urgently pressed you by any call or invitation to receive the offer of the Gospel and of Christ therein and if we were to speak to you all O Men and women one by one by name and Sirname this would be our Exhortation to you Only let your Conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ We come now as we promised to press this on you by some few Considerations And First Consider the authority that enjoins it and lays it on you and if ye trust him and expect the accomplishment of any promise of the Gospel from him then take this as proceeding from the same Authority presume not under the pain of Gods displeasure and of cheating your own souls to their ruine to take or medle with the promise if ye mind not sincerely to study a suitableness in your conversation to the Gospel 2. Consider not only the reasonableness of the thing but also the sweet easiness of it for taking it in a Gospel sense it 's an easy yoke and a light burden and it 's withall very suitable and congruous to all professors of the Gospel ought not a Minister to be like his calling a Merchant to be like his calling a Tradesman to be like his trade and calling ought not also a Christian to be like his Christian calling like the Gospel which he professeth 3. Consider the tyes and obligations that all who professe to have received the Gospel are under are ye not obliged to such a Conversation by your Baptismal Vow which obligation though many of you forget yet God will require it Think ye that ye are free to live as ye list to live like the Gospel or not or to take one Piece of a Gospel walk and leave another Ye are Professedly resigned to God in Baptisme and are by it oblidged to live every way as it becometh the Gospel and ye must either on the matter renounce your Baptisme and deny Christ and so deal treacherously with him or ye must make it your business to live like the Gospel 4. Consider that this Gospel will be the rule whereby ye shal be judged whether ye have indeed received the Mediator The promises and priviledges the duties and directions and the graces of it and improved them or not in the day saith the Apostle Rom. 2. That God shall judge the secrets of hearts by my Gospel If ye would have boldness when death and Judgement come endeavour a conversation becoming this Gospel though your conversation were very much becoming the law as it is impossible now without Gospel grace yet will not that satisfie the Judge for ye will be Judged both by the law and Gospel 5. Consider that though the Lord had required many hard things of you you would most certainly have been oblidged to have performed them and now when he requires only this ought ye not so much the more to aim at it and endeavour it Otherwise ye bring up an ill report on this Gospel as if it were an unsupportable heavy burden and most uneasiy yoke for which ye must answer at your peril consider the dreadful doom and sentence of the slothful Servant Who said He is a hard Master 6. Consider the great prejudice that a walk unbecoming the Gospel hath with it I cannot easily nay not at all to the full tell you the prejudice it will bring to you Only this I will say that it had been better for you that ye had never heard the Gospel It had been better that ye never had been piped to by the Gospel and that ye had never heard any of its sweetest musick-springs if to follow the Lords own similitude so far ye endeavour not to keep all the measures thereof in your dancing after it in your walking conforme to it Tell me if we may be in earnest with you what if ye were called even now or before night to give an account of your improving of and profiting by the Gospel whereof ye have so very much and from which ye have been so often piped unto how utterly unanswerable would many of you be found to be your triffling way of walking alone and in your families your neglecting of Prayer in them with the chiding and bitterness betwixt husbands and wives and with and amongst servants your omitting to instruct children and Servants in the principles of Religion your tipling and mis-spending your time declare sufficiently what your Conversation is If any of you shall say the conversation that you press is a harder work and a more difficult taske then we can win at Is it any thing else then what the Holy Ghost by the Apostle presseth on all the hearers of the Gospel Q take heed of branding a walk becoming the Gospel with so black a note as if it were an unsupportable yoke of intolerable hard bondage lest it be said to you evil and slothfull Servants c. if ye had been Serious and diligent in making use of the Gospel in a Gospel way by improving Christ and the Promises this work would have gone better with you and ye had been in much better case then ye are in now If ye had been more in the practise of Gospel duties and in the exercise of Gospel-graces in secreâ— your visible conversation might and would have been much more as it becometh the Gospel As for you that have Communicat there is a peculiar tye upon you you have renewed your Covenant with God and is there any covenanting with God but it hath this in it That if there be thereafter a falling back such back sliders come under the guilt of treacherous dealing with him Let me for a conclusion of this Discourse say these few things to you First Is it suitable think ye to fast the one day for your not walking as it becometh the Gospel and to take unjust liberty to your selves the next day on a fast day to spue out your foul and abominable sins and to return with the dog to the vomit in a few dyes thereafter will ye be so unsuitable to your professions and confessions beware of that for the Lords sake better ye had never fasted nor confessed then thus to mock the Lord. 2. Many of you have been at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and in it ye have professed that ye have taken Christ for your husband which implies the tye and obligation of a dutiful wife what I pray is That but to have a Conversation as becomes the Gospel and to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith ye are called As the Apostle Exhorts Ephes 4.1 And is there any straiter bond on earth whereby men can be bound If after thus Covenanting with Christ ye shall foully fail or fall back will it not exceedingly aggrege your guilt 3. Are there
delights nor desires taken up with things earthly but he should be Mortified unto and weaned from all those things He should not be like unto those who on all occasions are tossed with their humors and with every wind of temptation but he should be so calme Composed and sober settled and fixed in a Heavenly temper of Spirit that words of reproach may not much trouble him nor crosses and afflictions much disquiet him he should have such composure and sedatness of spirit that he may be much above the levity and unstayedness that the men of the world are under the power of and he should endeavor to be defecat and purged from those impure mixtures of self-interests that are regnant in worldly men Secondly in respect of his work he should and may have his conversation in Heaven and that is when he is much in the exercise of those Graces and in the practise of those duties that he is to be taken up with in Heaven to be much in love to God taken up with delighting in him much in Communion with God Holily impatient to want him or to live without his company to be much in the study and searching out of his perfections to be studying to have the heart fixed as it were a pillar in his house and not to go out from him to be much in admiring and adorning the free grace and love of God and to be in a Holy manner ravished with the contemplation of those to be much in the work of Prayer and much in the work of Praise saying Worthy is the Lamb to receive Glory Honour Dominion c. Joining with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders saying Holy Holy Lord God Almighty to be much in prizing and valuing of God in setting out and commending him to be in all duties willing and cheerfull doing Gods will cheerfully and with alacriâ—y to be much in longing for the Sabbath to converse more closely with him longing ofâ—en for privacie and retirement to pour out the heart before him and to do all this with Holy coveting to do it better praying that his will may be done on earth as it is done in Heaven Thirdly A believer may be said to have his Conversation and you are called to have yours in Heaven in respect of a Heavenly walk and as having a heavenly impresse on all your Conversaâ—ion to be walking as it were in Heaven and as if Holiness to the Lord were written on your foreheads which being very comprehensive takes in these First to have the heart fixed in meditating on God and his law on Spirituall and Heavenly things to have a sublime and divine strain of mind not debasing it self to pursue vanities but kept in a close and constant pursuit after Communion with God and conformity to him to be in case to say with David Psal 139. When I awake I am still with thee Labouring to leave the heart and mind in Heaven when ye ly down and seeking to find it there when ye arise 2. To have your affections love desires and delights in Heaven or heavenly 3. To have your words savouring of Heaven Ministering Grace to the hearers endeavouring to have your words weighty and grave in the commendation of God and his Grace 4. To have your hearing of the word and your praying carrying much of a heavenly stamp and impression on them hearing as if God were speaking to you Immediatly from heaven and praying as if ye were even before his Throne 5. In your more common and ordinary Conversation as in your Eating and Drinking in your recreating and in following your lawful callings and employments even the very coursest and lowest of them to propose to your selves another end then the men of the world do making that your main end to Glorifie God and to have such a heavenly and Divine way of going about these as may be convincing edifieing and gaining of on-lookers not to be predominantly influenced by selfish humours designes or interests looking only or mainly to what may please or profit your selves but levelling all at the Glory of God and the edification and good of others as well as your own Fourthly We may be said to have our Conversation in Heaven when we have a Holy commerce and trading as it were with Heaven as a man is said to converse in France or Spain when he trades and trafliques there So to have converse in Heaven is Spiritually to traffique there to have Faith and Hope exercised in and about heaven to send many prayers and desires to heaven as so many empty vessels and to be in the lively and longing expectation of their return full and richly loaden to make many visits as I said before to heaven and to be in all those neither seldome nor transiently and at starts only but to be frequent and more continuing in them and though they should sometimes return either with seeming losse or with very litle gain yet to keep up the trade and traffique seeking to make up our losse by a new voyage thither for the trade is not alwayes to speak so alike quick Fifthly We may be said to converse in heaven by our abiding as it were in heaven and this is one of the highest steps of a heavenly Conversation If ye shall ask How it is that a believer while on earth doth or can abide in Heaven I Answer these wayes or in these respects 1. By having his heart in heaven where his treasure is For as the Lord sayes Where a mans treasure is there is his heart the man as it were dwels there and if at any time he remove a litle he leaves there his great stock and his heart as a Factor so though the Christian be discoursing buying selling eating drinking c. Yet in all these his heart may and ought some way to be in heaven 2. To have his Faith in heaven and as it were never to come out of it 3. To have his love in heaven folding its two armes about the Lamb and him that sits on the Throne holily loth to have them loosed from those sweet Soul solacing and satisfieing embraces 4. To have his hope in heaven which is an Anchor cast within the vail and makes the soul safe and sure amidst the greatest tempests of outward trouble as a ship rideth safely when she hath cast Anchor on firme ground so that there is no fear she will drive In a word these Four The Heart Faith Hope and Love being in heaven we may say that the mans best half and Part is in heaven his â—edder stake is loosed and much of his Tabernacle taken down and he made in a good measure meet ready and ripe for his dissolution and for heaven Thus ye are called and oblidged to have your Conversation in heaven Sixthly A Believers conversation may be said to be and ought to be in heaven when his contentment delight and satisfaction are in heaven when all that he desires all that
is now in Jerusalem and in the seven famous Churches of Asia But the voice of Terrour and as it were the Scriching of Owls and seeing God is not slack as men count slackness what know ye when the Kingdom of God may be taken from you and given to others And when he will cry to speak so Pack and go Every day is not a Market day every Lords day is not a Communion day many Congregations in Ireland and else where have sadly found this wherein it hath come to pass that great scarcity and want are come where there was once great plenty And to press this a little further We may in the First Place Ask whereat it sticks and halts I tell you that there either must be a bargain or it must and will sometime be known where the blame lyes were it but the bare reading of these very words they bring the invitation and offer to you and will ye dare to cast at the wares or the terms on which they are offered Grace brings a good bargain to you and stoops very low with it For 1. It will not stand with you on bygones if now you deal honestly The sure Mercies of David will cover and blot out those and if any of you think that ye have much debt on your head as who haâ—h not It will not upbraid you the iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for and shall not be found There shall be as it were Scores drawn through them your accounts shall be all dashed out by free graces Pen This is a cryed Fair and Proclaimed Market of free grace from which no honest comer shall be secluded thrust back or sent away empty for here an empty purâ—e needs not make a blate o bashful Merchant 2. Grace stands not precisely on fore-prepa ations wheâ—e Souls honestly and sincerely come as that ye have not been so and so humbled and have not such and such previous qualifications as ye would be at Nay someway it excludes these as offering to bring money and some price which would quite spoile the nature of the Market of free grace nay yet me say further if it were possible that a soul would come without sense of sin Grace would embrace it sense of sin being no condition of the Covenant but a Physicall to speak so qualification of the Covenanter and grace is free to them that want it and let it be supposed to be in a person void of Grace and still in unrenewed black nature it 's there but a splendid sin as those shadows of Morall vertues in all meerly natural men are Grace can at the instant of coming creat qualifications there could readily be no qualifications in Zacheus when he was on the tree Yet Christ tells him Salvation this day is come to thy house 3. Grace stands not on the want of any effect of Faith where it calls to believing it will not stand on darkness of interest nor on want of progress in Sanctification nor on things being out of order for where it comes it puts things in order It will be no relevant exception for a person that hath noâ— closed with the bargain and hath not embraced Christ to say alace I have no love to God to the Godly and to his interest because Grace can say thou hast not closed with Christ and so canst not have the effect before the cause come and close and these and other effects shall follow 4. It stands not on degrees of Faith nor on the strength firmness and height of it it will take little even a look or a glance of the souls eye that sees not clearly according to that memorable word Psal 34.5 They looked to him and were lightened the more that souls look to Christ their eye grows the clearer it will take an honestly willing mind and hearty consent though the ability be very litle a receiving or a sincere minting at receiving of the offer Him that comes or is really a coming though he be not yet come at least as he thinks but is with the Prodigal still as he apprehends afar off Will Christ and Grace in no case cast-out for no sooner doth spiritual life stir in Faiths weakest acting and moving towards Christ but Grace meets it 5. It stands on no concomitants though there should be many Idols and lusts raging in the person if there be a reall consenting by Faith to the bargain with a sincere resolution to abandon all these grace will not send him away empty or if the man say Lord I believe help my unbelief that is a done bargain nay were it to come with many spiritual issues and sores running and with fear to presume and as it were to steal a hint of Christ not to speak a word to him but to touch him He will not be angry nor upbraid but will say go in peace thy Faith hath made the whole We may Ask yet further to the recommendation of Grace 1. Was there ever a Merchant that came to the market with that purpose to buy on its own terms that went away empty and without wares If all the Congregation of the first born were put to it they would be ready to bear witness that Grace never stood with them on any qualification in them when they came honestly 2. I Would Ask was there ever any that adventured honestly on it whom it mis-gave That hazarded to speak so and yet fell by the way or that ever repented themselves that they hazarded and entrusted their Souls to this bargain 3. Let me Ask was there eveâ— any that took hold on and griped it in whose hand iâ— brake The bargain and Covenant is everlasting thâ— mercies are sure mercies once sure and alwayes sure once rich and for ever so It was and is a Covenanâ— well ordered in all things and sure blessed for ever bâ— the contriver and suretie thereof Some may possibly think that this doctrine looks to be somewhat laxâ— or lose But sure Grace is not laxe for as we maâ— say of Gods power Is any thing to hard for him Sâ— we may say of his Grace Is any thing too free for it Only abuse not Grace Prostitute it not turn not youâ— back on it neither turn it into wantonness It ye looâ— on grace and cheapen only and do not buy or if ye bid for one piece of it only and not for all Wo unto you that ever is was offered unto you what would yâ— be at Is it Holiness Heaven and happiness and thaâ— freely They are here Is it Christ and Christ freely and all that is his He is here in your offer whaâ— means then this whining to speak so and standing so much on terms as if the way of grace were a hard untoward unpassable way and as if God were a â—arâ— master Nay it 's a good soft sweet easie way and plain to them that walk in it and God the best Masteâ— that ever Rich or Poor served and the easiest to servâ— and
seed springs up and hath a fair appearance but soon withereth and other some holds out So likewise at Fasts and Communions affections will be readily somewhat stirred and warmed and there will be many brave purposes and resolutions such as were in the people Exod 19. When they said All that the Lord commands we will do and they look demure and grave like for two or three dayes The Tippler keeps some dayes from the Tavern He that prayed not in secret nor in his family will it may be Pray for some time about and after such occasions others will go further on And yet it 's but some restraint on their sin or some fit and flash of affection that is transient and quickly gone and they turn again to follie and even the Godly themselves are here often found in a great measure guilty as the following Note will clear Fifthly Observe That even those people and Saints who have sometime been given to follie to whom God hath spoken peace and who have restrained their folly for a time thereafter may much fall back to follie again The admonition here given Let them not turn again to folly Supposeth this This needs not much proof If ye shall go through the Saints recorded in Scripture ye will find sad instances of it David after peace was spoken to him falls into adultery and murther Hezekiah after a sweet word of peace was spoken to him Isaiah 38. Falls into the follie of Pride and vain ostentation Chap. 39. Peter after peace spoken to him denyeth his Master Jehoshaphat after peace spoken to him fell once and again into the same sin and once even after he was reproved for it as is clear 2 Chron. 18.19 and 20. Chapters Or there may be a falling unto some other sins or out of one sin into another as it was with David This may befall reall Saints yea eminent Saints even Pillars in the house of God was there not peace spoken to the Disciples in that sweet Sermon John 14. and 15 and 16. Chap. And yet that sad word followes Ye all shall be offended because of me this night And Peter to whom that sweet word was spoken I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not doth foully fall into follie quickly after what then may befall the more Common sort of professors who know not what it is to stand before the least tentation The Reasons of this may be first because the devil falls presently on and seeks as it were with seven worse devils to re-enter the soul and busks this bait of the tentation and presents it in a new shape old courtiers to speak so and lusts set on and essay what hearing they can get 2. Because though by peace spoken tentations and corruptions may be bound up yea and some-what Mortified yet they are not slain outright they may lurk for a time but still live And 3. Because his People are ready in such a warme Sun blink to grow as it were wanton and under such a cessation from their lusts to cast by their armes to grow secure to grow somewhat too fain and to dream of an easie life thus it was in a measure with David as he confesseth Psal 30. I said in my Prosperity I shal never be moved If they get peace for a little who but they They are Lords in a manner and will not come unto him or if they win to a few tears and some liberty they are readily puft up and in some sort bid their Souls take them rest as if they needed to trouble themselves no more Therefore there are new on-sets and the Lord lets them see how vain they are even in their best estate as we may perceive in the Lords dealing with Hezekiah and with David in that Psal 30. Thou didst hide thy face saith he and I was troubled O! what follie vanity and out-breaking of corruption do often follow on the back of a seeming work of turning to God and a tender like frame in Professors of Religion So Psal 106. It is said that they provoked him at the Sea even at the red Sea Even where and when they were in such a frame that they believed his Words and sang his Praise they soon forgat his Works And waited not for his Counsel which was in a manner at the very Table to lift the heel against him And O! how Sad and lamentable a thing is it to be unwatchfull after a Communion and an offer or an Intimation of peace Sixthly Observe That There is nothing more called for from a people who have been given to follie and have had Peace spoken to them then to take heed that they turn not again to folly To take heed that they fall not into the same sins that they seemed to have abandoned and turned away from that it be not with them According to the true Proverb The Dog is returned to his vomit and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire as it is 2 Pet. 2.22 Under which similitude the Apostle powerfully disswades Professors of Religion from turning again to sin by shewing the loathsomness of it It being as abominable as a mans licking up again that which he hath vomited This then is the duty that the Lord calls for First That you should abstain from the sins that you have been given to such as tippling drinking drunk Swearing Sabbath breaking neglect of Prayer and the like and do so no more not only not to relapse into the same sins but that ye abstain from every other sin It is not enough that a man break off from one sin and take up with another It is not sufficient though a man will not be drunk in his neighbours house if in the mean time in his own house he tipple play the good fellow as ye call it and mispend his time Secondly Ye would Consider what engagements and resolutions ye have come under and that ye fall not back from them In a word it is not to be as ye were wont to be and that ye be found in no known sin nor defective in any known duty We come now to the more Particular and close Application of the whole in these Two Uses The First whereof is for Advertisement and warning Let him that stands take heed lest he fall Let him not look on himself as incapable to be stollen off his feet Alace Persons may be in a manner exalted to Heaven and in a very good frame in their own imagination and apprehension and it may be in some measure really and yet be brought back to the Puddle and Miâ—e again after they have shaken themselves and come out of it In prosecuting this we shal First shew wherefore we presse it And Secondly Wherein or in reference to what we presse it As for the First viz. Wherefore it is that I doe presse this advertisement and indeed it is not without very good ground as ye will easily perceive if First Ye look to and Consider
dayes nor go idly in the fields on the Lords-day yet they may mispend and triffle away their time at home as if falling back into Omissions were not a turning again to follie as well as falling back to Commissions The confessions of many poor Creatures who become Publickly and Prodigiously Scandalous on their death beds or on a Scaffold that omissions of duty have Predisposed them to and brought on those grosse Commissions may and should awake and alarm us ye would therefore with Holy Job Make a Covenant with your eyes and other senses and make Conscience to keep it Thirdly Beware of falling back to a secure cold-rise manner of going about duties of worship alone or in Company in publick or in privat let none of you think with your selves that now this Solemnitie is over ye need not wrestle in Prayer nor watch so strictly over your heart but let it gad and rove and not hedge it in on an ordinary Lords day as on a Communion Lords-day since there is no liberty allowed for an idle word or thought any day more then there is on that day Think it not enough that ye say your Prayers morning and evening and that none can charge you with any offence God the all seeing God observes you whether you be universall sincere and serious in the duties of Religion Fourthly Beware of neglecting Spiritual and Gospel duties such as Self-examination or Self-searching Self-denyall Mortification and use making of Christ The neglect of these aâ—d the like may be some way called Gospel-follie It is no doubt great Gospel-follie when Christ being freely and fully offered therein is not improved for wisdom righteousness Sanctification and redemption when the power of Godliness is not aimed at in dutie but People rest and sit down in the form thereof which yet in some respect is more combersome then the power for Christ improved makes all things go easily with us Therefore any of you who have loâ—ked on it as follie to neglect these spiritual duties see that ye return not again to that follie Fifthly Beware of unbelief have ye not resolved to cast out with that evil and resolved to be no more jealous of God though ye should meet with difficulties Believers in Christ lick not up that vomit again turn not again to that follie to which there is a secret Naturall bentness of heart If I say unbelief and jealousie be a follie take it not up turn not to it again Sixthly Beware of heart-ills possibly ye will not give way to more gross evils and yet suffer your Souls to be carried away after Idols or after vain proud Ambitious Covetous Revengeful filthy and Lascivious thoughts but if in very deed Christ get the heart he must reign in it and command the Eye Tongue Ears Hands Feet and all Seventhly Beware of falling back to the Inordinat love of the World and of letting the heart be too much addicted and glued to even lawfull pleasures creature-Comforts to your Callings Wives Children Houses Lands and incomes of gain and Profit from which there hath been possibly some suitable abstractedness these dayes past ye should not only abstain from oppressing Stealing and deceiving but ye would also guard against falling back to excessive pursuing after and as it were glutting your selves with the things of this world however lawfull in themselves Alace Perimus Licitis Inordinat love to and Immoderat pursuing after things lawful in themselves destroy more souls then things sinfull and unlawfull in themselves do the excuses of those invited to the Marriage of the Kings Son are founded not on things simply Sinful but on lawful things the Farme Oxen and Married wise Now the house is sweeped and ye are in Hazard if ye guard not to return to a greater and greedier feeding on those vanities I dare say there are Multitudes of men and Women who never so much hungred for the Communion as they have longed to have these Solemn dayes over and by that they might win back to their Callings worldly businesses and pleasures O what a weariness have they been to them As Sacred Solemnities were to those spoken of Amos 8.5 Who cried When shall the new Moon be gone that we may sell Corn and the Sabbath day that we may set out Wheat To many these dayes of Fasting and Spiritual Feasting and Communicating have been as a bridle bit in their Mouths to restrain them from running on the Mountains of their vanity and who knows but ere another Communion come the Lord may fâ—ed you as a Lamb in a large place The Second Use is For Exhortation would ye then know the duty that ye are called unto this is it Let not Gods People and Saints turn again to follie Let not the Idler return to his Idleness the tippler to his tippling the scoffer to his Scoffing the ignorant who have been at a litle pains to learn some questions before the examination and communion to his negligence in seeking after knowledge c. Let not this be If ye have vomited out these and other sins Lick them not up again To presse this Use a litle we would First Give you some considerations from the Text. Secondly Some directions to help you forward in the Practice of it For the first viz. Some considerations from the Text to press iâ— First Is it not a follie to sin once If so sure it is much more to relapse into sin Whether is it more true wisdom to abstain from those Sins or to fall back into them Is it not more wisdom for you who have been given to Tippling or drunkenness to neglect of Prayer and the like now to let alone sins and to give your selves to Prayer then to be walking in the street on the Plain-stones Is it not more wisdom to be given to edifieing discourse then to be laughing and sporting over the time Is it not better to come to the Church then to spend the time Idly In discoursing and waiting for a Tentation And if your conscience assent to the truth of this then we take witness in your Conscience that it doth so and this Instrument of witness will stand on record against you if ye shall turn to those sins and to this Folly again 2. Have ye been examining your selves And do ye find that much of your life hath been spent in folly by Some Twenty by some Thirty by some Fourthy by some Fifthy by some Sixty years And every days account cast up amounts only to folly vanity and Madness And is it not enough and may it not suffice you that ye have spent so long time in folly though ye spend no more so 3. Hath not God been speaking peace to some and given them the Intimation of it So that their Souls have been made to say God is here And have they not gotten the bargain closed and the hand writing that was against them torn We hope there are some such among us Nay are there any but the
in Improving the strength of Jesus Christ to prevent your turning again to folly do not undertake nor engage in your own strength but believingly lay all the weight and stresse on your Suretie Put his name in the band which ye give to God for the debt of duty Abide in me and I in you So ye shal bring forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing saith our Lord to his Disciples John 15. But how many fail and come short here While they go about duties and either quite misken or make but very litle use of Christ many know very litle or nothing at all what it is to make use of Christ in order to the making of their peace with God but O! how very few know what it is to make use of his strength to enable them for duty to go through the wilderness leaning on their beloved Seventhly Defer not to make your Resolutions and engagements practicable There are many alace who think Shame it should be said that a Sermon had so much weight with them as to make them alter and change their course at once It may be they will consent to be religious but they must be allowed to come to it by degrees to creep toward it piece-meal but beware of that lest it prove in the Issue to be a shift of thy deceitfull heart Ponder these words well Eccles 5. Defer not to pay what thou hast vowed for the Lord hath no Pleasure in fools And in the Holy Ghosts account he is a fool that deferreth and putteth off one moment O! delayes are in a speciall manner dangerous here and Sathan will not faill to knit one delay to another Eightly Reject all Temptations to sin and turning again to folly with abhorrency say with Ephraim What have I any more to do with Idols Never think on them but with indignation and Holy disdain for ye are undone if ye but once listen to them Ninthly Be often examining if ye be like and answerable to your Communicating and to your Promises and engagements many know not how it is with them because they Examine not Tenthly Walk humbly in the sense of your weakness trust not to your own heart for he that doth so is reputed to be a fool by the Holy Ghost Eleventhly Be helping one another forward in your way to Heaven Take heed saith the Apostle Heb. 3.12.13 That there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another dayly while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of Sin To be edifieing to others would through Gods blessing be edifieing to your selves and help you to be in good case to be praying with them would stir up your selves to more Seriousness in the exercise of that duty to be reproving sin in them would waken up more hatred of it in your selves and to be much Conversant in the duties of Mutual edification with them that are warm in their love to Christ to his interests and friends and diligent in the study of Holiness would readily through Grace stir you up to seek after more love and more Holiness as he insinuats in that exhortation to the Christian Hebrews Chap. 10.24 Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works Twelfthly And in a word endeavour to walk suitably to your light your own consciences will readily tell you that it 's best to walk so as ye may abstain from that which ye know to be sin and to be doing and delighting in that which ye know to be duty Theâ—e are very few if any duties of Religion but they are one time or another and many of them frequently laid before you and not a few shall I hope have cause of blessing God eternally that ever this Gospel-light was made to shine so clearly on them but for such of you As detain the truth of God in unrighteousness as the Apostle says some do Rom. 1 or make a prisoner of it by setting a guard of corrupt affections about it Whom God gave up to vile affections and to all sorts of most abominable filthiness because though they knew that such things ought not to have been done yet they not only did but took pleasure in them that did them I leave it with all the seriousness I can win to on you and take Instruments of witness in your consciences that ye have bad great offers and have made fair mints and come under at least seeming engagements if ye have not done so declare so much but since ye all professe that ye have engaged and some have really engaged not to turn again to folly walk suitably to your engagements as ye would not have your consciences condemning you and God who is greater then your Consciences to condemn you Many I fear have sleeping consciences and that will not now speak to them but the Conscience of every one will speak at length and not keep silence We shall now say no more but Pray that this word may be Blessed of God to you These five following Sermons were all Preached about the time of the Communion the first four within a very few dayes before it as it gradually approached the Fifth after it On Jeremiah 50. vers 4 5. In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Judah together going and weeping they shall go and see the Lord their God Vers 5. They shal ask the way to Zion with their faces thither-ward Saying come and let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not bâ— forgotten SERMON I. THe repairing and making up of a breach betwixt God and a People is a matter of greatest moment and Concern and when men are serious in it O how uptaking is it to them Which is holden out to the life in these words that lay forth before us very clearly the frame and carriage of a people which formerly have dealt loosly and deceitfully in the matter of their Covenant with God when they come through his Grace to be serious and in good earnest in the upmaking of it again As for the people spoken of here they are Israel and Judah the Loâ—ds own Covenanted People who had dealt falsly and foully in the Covenant and had thereby Procured sad strokes to themselves and had divided and separated themselves from God and one of them from another Which division and separation continued lamentably long They are both here represented as coming home together Seriously endeavouring to amend and make up the breach betwixt God and them and among themselves As for the time that this relates to In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord It looks literally and according to the Cohesion to Babylons Destruction and 〈◊〉 Lords bringing down that Babylonish Monarchy by the Persian King Cyrus In which time the People of God had some
liberty to return to their own land Yet considering the great scope of the Words and that this liberty of the Jews is in a great part fulfilled in Christ and that the union spoken of here is such as hath in it the gathering together of all the Tribes and withall that the Covenant which they enter into with the Lord Christ is such as shall never be forgotten We must extend the words to their Ingraffing again into their own Olive when all Israel shall be saved and they shall be graffed into their own root and Stock from off which they were broken As for the Scope it 's partly off encourage the Jews This being not only a Promise of their return but also and mainly of their Repentance and of their Friendship Reconciliation with God and with one another In those dayes they that had been far from him and busie vexing one another shall come and come together Their work and business in coming is to seek the Lord and the manner of it is going and weeping Praying and repenting and although the way be somewhat dark and not so discernible to them yet they go on asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward They ask how they may come to Him worship God again aright and perform the duties of a people inchurched to and in Covenant with him And as it were from one Post or Town to another they ask the way and get Direction from one day to another and from one duty to another And their designe in all is Come say they on the matter we were once in Covenant with God and with one another but we have been unfaithfull in both now let us amend and make up the breach in both Let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten Let us renew our Covenant with God and let it be done firmly and surely so as it may not be broken again this looks and hath respect to Jeremiah 31.31 c. and 32.49 40. Where the Lord Promiseth To make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and with the house of Judah Cited by the Apostle Heb. 8. And it 's called Chap. 32. An everlasting Covenant Which is not so much to be understood of meer externall Covenanting as of saving sharing in and partaking of Christs Righteousness for the Pardon of sin and of their engaging to God in his own strength to be forth-coming in the fruits of saving Grace and Holiness in their practice This is in Sum the way and course which they take and is a short directory for what should be a peoples carriage when they would make up the breach of a broken Covenant with God As for the Particular Scope of this place as it relateth to Israel and Judah their returning together we shall not insist in it yet from these words we may see First That There is good ground for us to expect the Lords bringing back his scattered People the Jews and their ingraffing again into their own Olive The same God that perswaded Japhet to dwel in the Tents of Shem can perswade Shem to dwell in the tents of Japhet As they minded us Gentiles as a litle Sister and were Holily Solicitous what they might do for us we ought in gratitude to mind them as the elder Sister that they may turn again to the Lord who hath given us his faithful Word for it which cannot fail but must be fulfilled Secondly We see that Heart-melting towards God and seriousness to make up the breach of a broken Covenant betwixt a People and him conduce natively to make the hearts of those that have been divided and set at variance from one another in much warmness of love to unite and sweetly to join together It 's from this that Israel and Judah become one Stick in the Lords hand Ezek. 37. This makes them as melted mettall to run close together as it were into one Lump though it was a long continued Schisme and had much bitterness attending it yet when their hearts are touched with a Sense of sin and of a broken Covenant their former differences and animosities evanish softness of heart in the sense of by gone sin would silence many things among us that all disputings writings and Printings will not be able to do Pray for this to the Land as the most effectuall mean and way of curing out divisions and of uniting us in the Lord It Joins Judah and Israel together whose breach was much greater and of far longer continuance then ours Thirdly We see here that A peoples joining and running together in serious seeking of the Lord is very Commendable and lovely and a good token and evidence to them of their turning to God and of Gods accepting of them even as bitterness and division is exceeding displeasing to God and prejudiciall to themselves and to the Work of Grace in them This is an happy-like hopeful and promising day of Repentance and turning to God that bodeth much unspeakably much good to a land and People But we come to consider the words as they do direct unto and chalk out the way for a people returning to make up a broken Covenant with God which is the Scope And we may take it up in these Three First As it respects the frame of their hearts And O what a tender humble warm and mournfull frame are they represented to be in They shall come and go together exciting one another going and weeping with their faces towards Zion Secondly As it respects and holds forth the great designe they have and that is to renew and make sure the Covenant betwixt God them Though it was now broken and they want not challenges for it Yet they do not say we will never enter in it again Because we brake it the last time we made it But come say they let us make it the more firm and stable Thirdly As it respects and hold out their posture and the way which they take in pursuing this designe There is a going and weeping a praying to and seeking of the Lord in a word they seek and endeavour to renew their Covenant with God seriously diligently and humbly and thus they pursue their designe First then If we look to their frame we will find implyed in it 1. A guilty condition 2. A challenging and convinced condition 3. A repenting condition they are kindly affected with the wrongs done to God and desire and use means to have them righted We shall name Two or Three generall Doctrines from this First Consideration of the word though in effect it will fall in with the Last The First whereof is this That Gods Covenanted People may deal foully and falsly in his Covenant For their coming to renew the Covenant supposeth that they had broken it and it 's also implyed in their mourning and weeping and saying Come and let us join our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten This needs no further
are represenâ—ed to be in here they aâ—e going we are sitting still they are weeping our eyes are dry and our hearts hard the humble mournfull way of Religion Alace is much gone from amongst us again they are renewing the Covenant but Ah! what can we say as to the securing of things betwixt God and us Are not the most part as well satisfied with their state and Condition as if there were nothing wrong nor amisse in it Alace shall we slubber and scurf over Religion and vaâ—lour selves from our selves and from oâ—hers when in the mean time our hearts and Consciences might if awake tell us that we are not in Covenant with God I know many of you will be ready to say ye are friends with God but let me ask such did ye ever know and believe the enmity did ye ever apprehend your selves to be straâ—gers to God and without the Covenant Did ye ever experimentally know any good that his word did to you as to the bringing of you under the bond of the Covenant Hath any gracious Change followed upon it The truth is many of you think that ye may go to Heaven without the word and the saving effects of it on your hearts ye found them as ye fancy always inclined to love God ye suppose that ye were alwayes in friendship with him which though there were nothing else to prove it is a manifest evidence that ye were never really in friendship with him But let me ask yet further did ye ever know what it was to make use of Christs mediation in the making up of a Covenant betwixt God and you It 's like ye will say ye prayed but ye might have done that though Christ had never come into the World and though there had been no ground for your acceptance on his account but I say again what use made ye of his mediation and sufferings I fear ye know little or nothing at all of this but ye come to him because ye imagine that he bears a good-will to all sinners and is very easie to be dealt with and that God the Father is more inexorrable and a harder partie to deal with then he as if Jesus Christ the Son were not as Just as the Father Or as if God the Father were not as ready through a mediator to accept of sinners as the Son is I would ask you yet further do ye think or can ye with any Just reason think that your Covenant is sure when ye know neither what it is nor how ye have entered into it In the Covenant as there is an offer on Gods side so there must be a receiving on yours though I grant that oftentimeâ— this to serious Souls will be unclear and it will bâ— their burden that they have not strong enough desires tâ— have it thorough and clear such Poo Souls would puâ— their darkness unbelief and undexterousness in Christ hand to be helped But it 's a sad matter that when wâ— should be praying you to close with Christ in the Covenant I must be our work and the hardest peece of it to shake many of you out of your presumption It 's unpleasure to us God knoweth to preach you out of thâ— Covenant but your Presumption Layeth a necessitâ— on us to lance you to the quick and to search down tâ— the bottom of your sores because these must be diâ—covered and laid open before there can be any Juâ— ground for the application of consolation if once 〈◊〉 could get you brought under a thorough conviction thâ— ye have been deluding your selves we might yet haâ— sweet lively comfortable and refreshfull sayes if 〈◊〉 were in this Posture Going and weeping for pervertiâ— your wayes with your faces towards Zion towards Gâ— through the Mediator ye might expect Gods blessiâ— on these Solemne Ordinances and that there should 〈◊〉 a Covenant made up with him never to be forgotten 〈◊〉 be Serious in the business and let not this opportuniâ— go by you unimproved to the best utmost advantagâ— and himself graciously help you hereunto Jeremiah 50. Vers 4.5 In those dayes and In that time saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Judah together going weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God Vers 5. They shal ask the way to Zion with their faces thither-ward Saying come and let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not be forgotten SERMON II. COvenanting with God if it be real well grounded and sure is a business of incomparably greatest concern and advantage to sinners but when it is otherwise and only Imagined without any Solid ground it 's attended with the greatest disapointment and Prejudice imaginable a man in that case fancieth himself to be in a state of Friendship and favour with God while in the mean time he is an enemy to God and God an enemy to him and is there any disappointment or disadvantage in the world comparable to that It is one great end and designe of all Ordinances that strangers to God by nature may be engaged to him and made to become his Covenanted People It was for this end that Christ came into the world and laid down His life and shed his precious Blood even to bring Sinners into a Covenant of Reconciliation and friendship with God and therefore the Ordinance that is now approaching is called the new Covenant or New Testamâ—nt in his Blood The words have in them a short and sweet sum compend of the gracious frame of a People turning home to God to get a broken Covenant made up Israel and Judah having deeply declined from the blessed state and condition wherein God had once graciously put them Their return and Repentance is here both Prophesied of and promised and this is the great thing which they designe in their Returning Even to get the knot to say so of the Covenant betwixt God and them made fast and sure so as they may never any more be separated from him We shall at this time shortly name some generall Observations from the words The First whereof is this that There is nothinâ— that People who havâ— any Convictions of â—heir sin and of their distance from God should more singly aim at and Seriously seek after then to be firmly joined to the Lord in Covenant or to be in good terms with him according to his Covenant For these come to the same amount to be in good terms with God to be Reconciled to God and to be in Covenant with God by the one we come to the other this we say should be aimed at sought after by all that are naturally born enemies to God Aliens and Strangers to the Covenant of Promise without Hope and without God in the World Ephes 2.12 Compared with vers 1.2 3. where to be dead in sins and tâ—espâ—sses is expounded to be Without the Covenaâ—t But more especially those who are touched with the sense of their
a hungring and thirsting after righteousness Because it hath in it a fixed longing with Holy Pain which Cant. 5.8 Is called a being sick of Love It 's such a desire as makes the heart even faint and sick for the want of the thing desired which can be satisfied with nothing else no more then a very hungry man can be satisfied if handfuls of Gold were offered to him it 's meat he must have In this respect which will be the Reason of the Doctrine Christ Jesus is called the food of the Soul and the Covenant is like the Pap whereby Christs fulness is Communicated and conveyed to us for we have no access to Christ but by the Covenant therefore Ephes 2.12 These two are put together being without Christ and being without the Covenant and Isaiah 66.11 12. Converts are said to Suck and be satisfied with the Breasts of the Churches Consolation and to be dandled on her knees Believers are like new born Babes whom nothing can satisfie or do good to but the Breasts and the Ordinances are as it were the breasts at which they suck and which are as so many Pipes to conveigh to them Spirituall nourishment to which the Apostle alludeth 1 Pet. 2.2 when he saith As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is Gracious and then follows to whom coming as unto a living stone c. Jesus Christ is the milk and the word the Pap that conveighs him and as the first thing that evidenceth life to be in a new-born Babe is hunger after the breast so is it here the Covenant satisfies the new born New creature The Use of the Point serves to put you to look back and to consider whether ever ye have in your experience known this wherein spirituall life shews it self Even to be holily fond or browden so to speak on the Papâ— the Regenerat Soul cannot endure to be keeped back from sucking the breasts of these Consolations that are in the Covenant Now it 's very Probable that many will catch at this as a very Comfortable Mark of Regeneration to themselves and will be ready to say why have we not this desire to be in Covenant with God And if that will be a proof of a work of grace we wanâ— it not and these Jewes hear spoken of before their coming to be in this blessed Frame were ready to boast â—hat they were Abrahams Children and that they had a desire to be in Covenant with God but it will be another sort of desire and eagerness which they will have When the Redeemer comes out of Zion to turn away iniquitie from Jacob. But that ye may know what this desire and impulse that we speak of is and if indeed ye have it consider these evidences of it First That it iâ— an ardent and vehement desire a pressingly urgent impulse not such as ye have had all your dayes but itâ— an effect of the Spirits out-pouring as that Paralell place with this viz. Zech. 12.10 clears I will saith the Lord Pour upon the house of David the Spirit of Grace c. Away with that Grace with that Faith and Love which are as old as your selves Secondly This desire and Impulse hath such a vehemencie with it as puts the man to his feet to go and Pray and to go weeping It stirreth him then so as he must needs go though he be much in the Dark and knows not so well and distinctly whither he is going because Love to be in Covenant with God will in a manner make a fool go right to Gâ—d though there is reason that he should seek after help to his infirmitie the desiâ—es of many are like the sluggards desire who lyeth still on his bed and his ease slays him This desire maketh some Holy stir and rouzeth to diligence in the use of means Thirdly This desire is such as never dies out till the Person be thorow in the point of Covenanting with God and therefore though he should be put as it were to digg wells in the wilderness and to go from strength to strength yet he will adventure on it and hold on in his way The Apostle Philip. 3. Speaks of it as his One Thing and when persons are suitably serious in this it is their one thing and not a peece of work only on the by and if they may come to it in all their lifetime they think as they have reason to do that they make a good bargain and have gained a noble Prize never did a man on Horse back in a race spur faster then they do that by any means they may attain it Fourthly The principle of desire after Covenanting with God holds them constantly in an estimation of and sucking at it as the mean of their life as the Babe cannot live without the breasts So they cannot live without the Covenant they cannot rest but in it I speak not now what Believers are in their declinings but when they are in a right Frame they have no being but in this Covenant they must needs have milk flowing through the Breasts of it for their nourishment that is a cursed life or raâ—her death of persons who come to the word and caâ—e not whether it be made lively or not and come to the Communion and care not whether they get by it any life and comfort or not and a cursed Faith that keeps Souls from making use of Christ and such is the faith of many hearers of the Gospel Now Covenanting is the Believers Earnest and they are thereby made to forget their Faâ—hers house in hope to be admitted to dwell with Christ for evermore Thirdly Observe that A well qualified desire of Covenanting with God is a good token of Conversion or a rightly byassed desire of being in Covenant with God the language of Persons coming home to God Come 〈◊〉 they and let us join our selves to the Lord in a perpâ—uall Covenant The Lord se s down this as their coâ—mendation and as an evidence of his begun Gracioâ— work in them They no doubt had wo ds of Coâ—nanting before but wanted this right impulse and dâ—sire and therefore Sat still but now they are much aâ—fected stirred and put to their feet It being aâ— effeâ— of the Poured out Spirit on them We saâ— this is good token of a begun work of Grace and of persoâ— their coming home to God because this impulse tâ—wards and desire of Covenanting with Goâ— speaks oâ— these three First The sense of their need of him aâ— that they cannot live without him and the stopping 〈◊〉 their Mouth with Holy shame and confusion befoâ— God Secondly An high estimation that they have 〈◊〉 him a Judging that they have no happiness but in bin Thirdly It speaks out faith in their actuall betakinâ— of themselves to him for the up making of what the want and stand in need of There is some what of
Covenant Secondly they might have thought that it was a very long Journey and that they would never be able to go thorow to the end of it besides that they were under the dominion of strange Kings who were Heathens So it may be said on the matter and is often said to serious Souls that would fain believe can ye believe It will not be with you are ye not under the feet of many Tyrannous lusts And how will ye win free from them yet they resolve and must yea dare not but resolve to go forward and the reason is because they resolve to take with their guilt and to make use of the Covenant for answering and silencing of challenges and they resolve also if the Journey be long to make use of the Covenant for strength to make them hold on and hold out in it The weak Believer when such doubts are started should make use of the Promises of the Covenant such as these Faithfull is he who hath called you who also will do it 1 Thess 5.24 Return back sliding Children and I will heal your back-slidings saith the Lord and then follows Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Jer. 3.22 They yeeld themselves to the Lord. A Third Difficultie is their ignorance they might have said we know not the way and how can we think to come where we desire and designe to be as some will be ready to say we can tell some words of the Catechisme but Alace We know not what it is to believe yet they sit not still for all this but as one Remedy of their ignorance they ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward And if ye Ask here how can their faces be thitherward when they are a king the way And at whom do they ask the way The Gentiles amongst whom they live know it not and they have no other to ask at I answer they are hanging on God and taking their Marks and meaths of the way as he gives them from his word and there is a most sweet word for such Isaiah 35.8 where the Lord speaking of this way and calling it the way of Holiness he saith The way faring man though a fool shall not erre therein It 's the heartsomest way that can be O! but it be safe for the way-faring sinner for the seriously seeking Soul to have the face toward God for making up of Peace with him upon the one hand the Lord hedges up such persons their way with thorns that they shal not find their lovers and upon the other he constrains them to go right forward He leads the blind in a way they know not and makes darkness light before them are there not severals of you brought far thorow this day and ye know not well how He brought you to Faith very insensibly and trained you on peece and peece and yet ye cannot tell well how but ye know certainly that it was He that did it and in this Case O! but it be good singly to be given up to Gods leading and guiding who leads his flock like a shepherd who gathers his Lambs with his arm and carries them in his bosom and gentlie leads them that are with young as it is Isaiah 40.11 The Lambs would run wild and ruine themselves if left on the Hills but they are under the good Shepherds oversight and tutorie to speak so who brings home the lost sheep on his Shoulders as it was even now said gathers the Lambs with his Arm and gently leads them that are with Young which not only saith that he drives not hard lest they cast the young but that as the Nurse leads the litle Child otherwise then Ladies use to be led by a gentle touch of their hand or arm by the arm holes or by the tugs when the Child knows not how to go and cannot stand on its own feet even so leadeth he such I taught saith the Lord Hosea 11. Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms when a poor Body hath Christ a forming in the heart he will gently lead such an one and deal wonderfully tenderly with the person ye who come honestly to him may confidently yeeld and give up your selves to be his and guided by him though ye be both weak and know not the way well if ye can but cast a look to him to speak so or be sweetly silent before him allowing him to be doing and to take his oâ— way with you if you lay your selves humbly in 〈◊〉 dust and wait what he will do to you he will accoâ— that Believing The Lord is good to them that wait him to the soul that seeks him saith Jeremiah Lamâ— 25. To wait on Gods leasure is a saying much abuâ— but it is very good and commendable here It is gâ— that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Sâ—â—vation of the Lord. Be not afraid sincere and exercâ— Souls I say be not afraid when he is as it weâ— pouring you from vessel to vessel and putting youâ— his own holy and wise ends in some confusion so ye know not well what to do or to what hand to you he is wondrous tender of you in that Case will have a speciall care that ye Mis-carry not Thâ— a very sweet Subject if we could speak suitably 〈◊〉 Himself bless it to you Jeremiah 50. Vers 4.5 Going and weeping they shall go seek the Lord their God Vers 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with faces thither-ward saying Come and let us our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covâ—nant shall not be forgotten SERMON III. IT is like that at the first reading of these Words will approve both the designe that this People haâ—â— engaging themselves to God in Covenant and 〈◊〉 endeavour to have their engagement so solid and sure as it may not be broken any more but may hold for ever we take it for granted also that ye will Judge that the disposition and frame of Soul wherein they are while about this great Business is very becoming and â—uitable for such as have dealt unfaithfully and foully in â—he Covenant of God and are from the Conviction â—ereof stirred and put upon Resolutions to engage with â—â—m of new and to enter again into a Covenant with â—â—m we Heartily wish that it were a peece of our Exercise this night before our approaching the Table of the Lord the next day to compare the frame and Sett of our hearts with what these words hold forth this Peoples frame and disposition to be We need not now speak to the Scope of the words it being so clear and having been touched at before There is here a People Prophesied of who are to be brought to Repentance and Covenanting with God in the Latter dayes whose Spiritually good and desirable frame is described They shall go weeping and seeking the Lord each of them stirring up another having this for their designe and the Language of their hearts Come and
ye that this was in your offer and on very free and easie terms and ye would not accept of it but would needs destroy your selves 2. If there be sin and a quarrell is there not a necessity to have it taken away Have ye laid your account and resolved not to be solicitous and carefull whether ye be friends with God or not And if ye will not say that why do ye not enter this Covenant 3. Is there any other way to get sin pardoned and the quarrell taken away but by making sure your Covenant with God David or any others that were saved were they saved any other way This Covenant was all his Salvation and all his desire 4. What will ye say in the day of the Lord when the Trumpet shall sound and he shall call you to an account for refusing his free and Gracious offer when there will be no more treating with you when he shall say and make your own Conscience say to you It was plainly told you that there was a quarrell standing betwixt me and you It was told you that I was willing to enter into a Covenant with you and to remove that quartell I sent my Messengers unto you for this end but ye made light of the matter Say to it O say to it ye must say something Yea or Nay ye are not left to be indifferent and to keep up your selves in this matter I tell you if ye say not Yea ye say Nay and as the Apostle speaks Acts 13 46. Ye pass sentence on your selves and judge your selves unworthy of Eternall life It 's interpretatively a saying that ye will not have Heaven and life thorow Christ and therefore as ye would not destroy your own Souls I beseech you nay I obtest you in the Name of the Lord and for his sake accept of this Covenant We tell you and as the Apostle hath it we say Be it known unto you that through Jesus Christ remission of sins is Preached to you He hath purchased life and Salvation to sinners And to you is the word of this Salvation sent Give O give your consent to the bargain and that is all we seek of you Now to Prosecute this a little and to put you yet further to it because it will ly before God whether we have put you to it or not and whether ye have accepted of this Covenant or not whether we were in earnest in Proposing it and whether ye were in earnest in closing with it Consider 1. The Persons whom we put to this and the things that we put you to 2. The terms on which 3. The grounds from which and. 4. The qualifications and directions whereby First As for the persons whom we put and press to this Covenanting with God It 's not those only who have gotten their tokens warranting them to come to the Table nor those only that are debarred and so have got no tokens but it 's all of you Those who are afar off and near hand but differently To the tender Soul we say come forward to the secure we say Humble your selves and then come and join in this Covenant The thing we call you to is to take the Lord to be your God and to give up your selves to be Gods we call you to take God to be your Master and your Father your Saviour your Head your Husband your Friend even your all and that is no ill nor small offer and we call you to give up your selves to God to forsake your Fathers house and all your kindred and to cleave to him to join your selves to the Lord as the Text hath it and as it is said The Prodigall Joyned himself to a certain Citizen So ye would joyn your selves to the Lord and be beholden to him for your life Secondly As for the Terms they are in short that Seeing God saith accept of my Sons Righteousness and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters ye would freely accept of it and take and put Christs Righteousness in the place and Room of self-righteousness which was in the Covenant of works found your plea before God on nothing that ye can do but on Christs doing and suffering for you which now by Faith ye resolve to adhere to and resigne your selves to him without any reservation to be guided and saved by him in his own way As for the Third How or from and by what grounds we put you to this or rather how doth the Lord put us all to it First Ye are put to it by his offer in the Gospel which in discretion cals you to give him an answer he cries Come unto me and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David And doth he not require an answer And is it not incumbent to us who speak to you in his Name to crave your answer We declare to you all that ye may if ye will come to be joined with God in Covenant and may be sure to be accepted of as his if ye come aright Now what say ye to it either ye must look on this as a cheat or cunningly devised fable or if ye dare not look on it so ye must accept of it and make it welcome Secondly Ye are put to it in this respect that the Lord brings you now and then under some conviction of the necessity of your peace with God something within you saith that peace with God is worth the having and needfull that this is a good bargain and that ye have need of it and there are now and then some raw resolutions to put it to a point and it may be there is something presently that puts you to it and if not so much the more ye would put your selves to it lest the Kingdom of God be taken from you Thirdly Ye are put to it by this same Sacrament is it possible that ye can take the Communion for a Seal and confirmation except ye Covenant with God before If ye will not Covenant ye prove your selves to be Treacherous dissemblers in going to the Communion and to be liars to God when he presents and offers his Covenant ye profess to take his offer and to close the Covenant with him but ye refuse as it were to take the Pen in your hand or do throw it away when he presents to you the Cup of the New Testament ye drink the Wine and spill the Blood and so become guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord when ye despise it and will not make use of it nor Covenant with God that ye may get the use of it And therefore Fourthly Know that ye are put to it presently and peremptorily that the Lord will take it for a refusall and for a scorning and despising on your part if ye do it not and do ye think it a litle matteâ— to have such a guilt lying on your score what knoâ— ye if ever God shall offer to Seal a Covenant with yoâ— again and
Covenant The grossest sins of Pagans are in some respect as no sins in comparison of this John 15.22 2. There will be much shame before God even shame and confusion of Face everlasting shame they shall rise from the dead to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12. Sinners will have much shame ere all be done for every sin But such as have wickedly betrayed their trust to God and after they had made Profession of entring in Covenant with him have dealt Perfidiously and falsly in it will be in a manner hissed at amongst devils and reprobat Pagans who never had such offers neither made such Professions and their condemnation will be acknowledged to carry eminent and conspicuous desert in it Because such had a good bargain and dealt treacherously with God and quite maried it to themselves they have often also much shame amongst men even here The man saith Christ That hears my sayings and does them not is like unto a foolish builder that built his house one the sand and elsewhere he resembles rash engagers in profest Covenanting with him to men who sit not down to count the cost that begin to build and not being able to finish expose themselves to the Mockage Scorn and Derision of all that pass by Such and such a man will some be ready to say was a great Professor but now behold what is become of him take him up yonder he seemed once to have some tenderness but now he is quite turned aside and become gross and loose Men of any Morall honesty and ingenuity will be ashamed to break their word to violat their engagements one to another in worldly matters how much greater shame is it to break to God and to deal falsly in his Covenant 3. It hath deep reflections upon God for the Covenant-breaker saith on the matter that it repents him that ever he made it for he hath never gotten good of it and that God hath not been faithfull in keeping to him and that therefore he thought himself loosed from all its Obligation Now will any of you dare to say that the Covenant is not a good bargain or that God is not a good responsall and faithfull party to deal with What iniquity have yâ—ur Fathers found in me saith the Lord to his Professing people Jer. 2. that they are gone so far from me Come saith he Micah 6. Before the Mountains and let the Hils hear my Controversy with you what iniquity have ye found in me wherein have I wearied you testifie against me Sure all that depart from God rub reproach on Gods Covenant as a bad bargain and on God as a bad and unfaithfull party to deal with O high and horrid practical Atheisme and Blasphemy Doubtless such will find that they have played the fools egregiously in Committing these two great evils in forsaking God the Fountain of living waters and in digging to themselves Cisterns even broken Cisterns that could hold no water O! If ye could Imagine what ye will think of it ere long when ye will not get a drop of watter to cool your tongue because ye said by your practice that God was not worth the having And to the Almighty depart from us we will have none of thee neithâ—r will we have the knowledge of thy ways 4. Much want of peace and much anxietie will follow upon it even the penitent and converting People of God Jer. 3.20 21. have much bitterness on this account of Treacherous dealing in Gods Covenant a voice of weeping and Lamentation is heard on the mountains the Children of Israel saying we have perverted our way we have forsaken the Lord our God how much more bitterness of another nature how much more Smart vexation Anguish Agony and gnawing of Conscience shall impenitent sinners have on account of their false and Perfidious dealing in Gods Covenant This will make the hearts of many to quake and tremble for terror If ye get Repentance it will be a heart-break to you and if ye get not repentance much heart less heart-break and crushing is abiding you in the end for evermore and O what trembling of heart failing of eyes and sorrow of mind may be betwixt and that 5 Much wrath will follow on it in the day of the Lord if it be continued in and judge ye withâ—n your selves if there be so many aggravations of or so many threatnings against any sin as of and against unfaithfull and false dealing in Gods Covenant this sin hath made the Jews to lye these Sixteen hundred years and above Scattered among all Nations as a curse Therefore make it your great designe and business â—ow to be Faithful to God and to have the Covenant with him A perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten As for the Third viz. Some motives and encouragements to excite you to be Faithful in Gods Covenant and to study to have it A perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten consider in the First place that it is a singularly good and none-such bargain to them that keep Covenant there is no bargain more lovely to them that keep touches with God It 's saith dying David 2 Sam. 23. all my Salvation and all my desire It hath all things in it that my heart can wish we make a pitifull and poor life to our selves thorow our undervaluing Gods Covenant the Believer by improving of it might have as we use to speak a Lords life yea a Kings life yea a life infinitly preferable to the life of all the great men and Monarchs on earth having all things though Possessing nothing as it is 2 Cor. 6.10 and saith the Apostle Philip. 4. I have all I abound and have no lack while in the mean time he was living on a litle Charity from others we might have a good liâ—e here and hereafter doâ—h it not exceedingly Commend Gods Covenant that neither Sickness Poverty Reproach Contempt Persecution nor Death it self though violent and Bloody can marr this excellent life when the Covenanter comes to Judgement Who can lay any thing to his Charge It is God that Justifieth who shall condemn him He hath a friend before him Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and is in good-terms with God The great advantage of it in this life and in that which is to come for godliness is great gain having the promise of both may abundantly commend the Covenant and Faithfulness in it I am perswaded there is no suiter or wooer to court and put in for the sinners heart affection that can possibly out-bid Gods Covenant can the Lust of the eye the Lust of the flesh or the Pride of life can Profit Pleasure or Preferment make such Proffers Is there such advantage to be had in serving them as there is to be had in serving God By the one Ye bring forth fruit unto Holiness and in the end reap Eternal Life but by the other Ye sow to the flesh and shall of the flesh reap Corruption a poor and hungry
Harvest Secondly The very keeping of Covenant with God is in it self an advantage It hath a great reward in the bosom of it for it puts the Person to love God to delight in him to place its happiness in him to study Holiness and Mortification of Sin and is there not great advantage in these can ye think or say that there is any prejudice in these and such things as these namely to be blameless in your Conversation to be sincere and not a Hypocrite to be serious and not Luk-warm I am perswaded that if ye will but put it seriously to your own Consciences ye will be forced to say that Sincerity in Religion is better then Hypocrisie and stedfastness in Gods Covenant then Treachery and what more do we call for And Therefore let me on this ground and as ye would not come in Tops with your own Consciences beseech you to study Faithfulness in the Covenant Gods Covenant hath a great advantage of the hearers of it and of professed engagers in it even a friend in their bosoms viz. Conscience that will side with it and say that it was a good bargain that the terms were very reasonable that no prejudice could come by it but unspeakably much advantage will tell the man that it would have been his honor and for his profit to have keeped it and to have been faithful in it why then will the Lord say didst thou deal falsly in it and renounce it The wretched mans Conscience will answer that there was no shadow of reason for it it was plain Folly and madness for to keep and do Gods Covenant and Commandment is Peoples wisdom before all Nations Deut. 4. It is a sad matter that when men may have that which is infinitly preferable to what they are so eager in seeking after even true Riches Pleasure and honour Peace that pasteth all naturall understanding Joy unspeakable and full of Glory and every good thing by Covenanting with God and by faithful dealing therein that they should not drive this as their great designe and make it their great work and uptaking business O That there were such a heart in them saith the Lord Deut. 5. That they might fear me and keep my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever Men are ready to say we must provide for our Families and under that Specious pretext they shift this main work but Ah! fools that they are there is no way comparable to this to provide for families and Children even to have themselves and their Children entred into Gods Covenant and made to deal faithfully in it this engageth him to provide for and become tutor unto the Mans Children and is there not great encouragement here to have every good thing bestowed and all carking care and anxietie concerning our selves and Children removed Thirdly We would consider that God is a singular good Party to deal with very tender of them that aim to deal honestly with him he is indeed severe and terrible when he becomes the avenger of a broken Covenant but he is most tender towards honest engagers who sincerely endeavour to keep touches with him he is no rigid interpreter of their actions but is ready to put the best sense on them that they are capable of Like as a Father saith the Psalmist Psal 103. Pitieth his Children so doth the Lord Pitie them that fear him He is a father that will take litle off the hand of his Children when he knows them to have a will to the work when he will not deal so with others all his wayes are mercy and truth to them that keep his Covenant and his Testimonies It 's not meant of such as keep it Perfectly for so they needed not Mercy but of them that honestly designe and endeavour to keep it and may not that encourage to be faithfull in Gods Covenant that he is so easie to please Fourthly Consider that he hath graciously stuffed his Covenant with Promises meet for the thorow-bearing of them that would fain keep Covenant if it be an evil heart that will not love God which troubles them the Promise is I will Circumcise their heart and the hearts of their seed to love the Lord their God Whereas no others who are without the Covenant or deal unfaithfully in it can expect the performance of any such Promise If it be a back sliding heart the Promise is Jer. 3.22 I will heal your back-slydings If it be the fear of departing from God that troubles them the Promise is Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their heart that they shall not depart from me If it be the dominion of sin that they fear the Promise is Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have Dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but und r Grace that is under the Covenant of Grace And if it be fear of the Prevailing of Sathans Tentations that troubles them the Promise is The God of Peace shall bruise Sathan under your feet shortly May we not then take heart to be faithful in this Covenant Yea he hath also condescended to come under this engagement too even to make us forth coming in the Covenant I will call saith the Psalmist Psal 57. Upon the Lord who performeth all thing for me It might have been said to David how wilt thou get all done that thou hast undertaken He answers I will call upon him who performeth all things for me And so I will get them all done and Performed so as I may hope to be accepted on the Mediators account and for his sake Fifthly Consider the Mediator of the Covenant who is surety and Cautioner not only for believers debt But also for their duty Therefore he is called Heb. 7. The surety of this better Covenant and when Christ and we are engaged in one bond there is ground for us to expect that something will be got done tho the principal debtor be not much worth yet the Cautioner is Worthy and infinitly responsible Sixthly Consider that there are already many who have passed thorow the troublesome Sea of this world and have been Marvellously helped and it 's but a litle and all you honest engagers to the Lord will be thorow the same Sea and fairly set on Land your warfare ere long will be at an end the prize will be got without any more fighting what is your fighting sighing and walking heavily clothed as it were in mourning for a litle time It 's but for a few years and it may be to some of you not so long and within a litle space The day of refreshing from the presence of the Lord will come a relieving of you from your post a loosing of you from your bonds a final discharge from your warfare will come and a new song will be put in your mouths and Palmes in your hands O but faithfull dealing with God in the Covenant will have a heartsome outgate when ye shall
would ye have the Covenant and Promises here they are Is it Christ himself that ye would have because ye dare not trust to a promise without a Cautioner Here he is or would ye have Heaven and be Eternally happy It 's also here Consider then I beseech you what is in your Offer dare you say that the security is not valid good and sufficient And if ye should there are many witnesses in Heaven against you and also the Sacrament on Earth which now is offered to confirm you This bargain therefore and its security must be receiv'dr else wo unto you for ever This word which we now Preach Nay these stones shall bear witness against you that our Lord Jesus was willing to save you and every one of you and ye would not And therefore your Blood shall be required at your own hand and He found without any the least Culpable accession to it Thirdly Ye are either to Communicat to day or ye are only to be hearers and Spectators whether the one or the other Is there not a necessity that ye close this bargain If ye be to Communicat will ye take the Bread and wine and misken and slight Christ If so ye will eat and drink your own Damnation would you have the Character of a right Communicant This is it that ye renounce your own and trust to his Righteousness and take the Sacrament for a confirmation of your interest in it If ye come thus ye shal be welcome for this Ordinance is appointed for this very end if ye be not to Communicat this word of the Gospel comes to you though ye have secluded your selves from the Sacrament either thorow Ignorance or scandal It might be a sweet Communion to you If yet Christ get a welcome and it should I assure you in his Name make way to a new communion here or in Heaven But Fourthly I would a litle mote particularly beseech you to consider that ye must either give Christ a welcome or not a yea or a naysay a grant or a denyal for there is no mean or middle This day shall not pass and go by without a hit or a miss to speak so Christ will not knock at your door and nothing follow or be done It will either be that Christ was at such a time ruzed or commended and made offer of and his People would have none of him or that the heart opened as the heart of Lydia unto the Lord and that Salvation came to the Soul as it did to Zacheus his house your time is but short and uncertain Ye know not if ye shall come another Sabbath to hear some that now speak to you and some that hear are dayly removed And this bids you make haste to creep in to him quickly without longer delay while his armes are stretched out to receive and embrace you There are several sorts among you that keep at a distance from Christ but I would have all of you soberly to think whether ye will say Yea or Nay There is here what may silence and satisfy any Soul that thwarts with the call of God Can ye say that there is any better bargain any better security or any heartier call and invitation Let us come and reason together saith the Lord Isaiah 1.18 19 Though your sins be as Crimson they shall be as white as Snow though they be red as Scarlet they shal be as Wooll if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be destroyed Our Lords Blood is of that efficacy that it can make Crimson and Scarlet-coloured sins white white as Snow and Wooll Why do ye then linger stick stand or halt Ye will it may be Object and say First I would fain come if I durst but Consider I pray you that it 's Christ and the Covenant and Grace on the Throne that call you and this is their voice Thou hast spoken and done evil as thou couldest yet return unto me and therefore fear and tremble yet come fear and bring your sins with you to the Fountain to be washen and to a skirt of his love to be covered thereby and you shall on your coming be cleansed and covered But it may be ye will Next Object and say I would fain come but I cannot come for Answer Let me ask you Is there a Soul in hell this day that can say I would fain have come and could not come That which we seek of you is to make no long tedious or toilsome Voyage if there be honesty it 's only that when Christ is come to you ye will be willing to receive him and if ye thus come ye are Believers Do not I beseech you mistake in thinking and thereby obstructing your own coming that persons must first be Believers and then come to Christ No but first ye must come with the litle glimmering that ye have and â—ame as ye are and it will go with you his Chariot is waiting for you and the very Cripplest of you that cannot come of your selves to Christ if ye be willing to close with him on his own terms He shall come to you But it 's like some will in the Third place Object and say Alace I am very indisposed to come For Answer I shall grant it may indeed be true but yet consider who are invited it 's the Poor Blind Halt Maimed Wretched and Miserable O what unfitness have such and yet none of them are excepted against I would have none to be presumptuous and vain but if indeed ye would fain come ye cannot come so indisposed as the bargain will on that account be cast It will not be the want of a Disposition that shall cast it else the Cripple and Blind and Luke warm Laodiceans had never been invited whether is a suitable disposition of your own making or of Christs Sure it 's of his and can ye expect ought from him without coming to him or Believing in him But Fourthly Some will Object and say Alace I have often come and broken away again How can I then Believe that I am invited For Answer I would desire you to Consider whether that Objection tends Even to question the truth of the Gospel our Lord Jesus saith He came to save sinners and ye say I would fain know if that be true or not if ye be Poor Blind Miserable Naked c. And have need He commands us to invite and call such and it 's the way of unbelief to make them scare at Christ and stand furthest a back from him who have most need to draw near to him if ye have come and broken afterward Come again and where a knot hath not holden cast a new one But alace There is a sort of Careless Atheists and secure Hypocrits whom this Gospel strikes dead and carnall worldlings who have no serious thoughts of what is coming I would pose such and ask you Care ye for your Souls
care ye for Remission of sins Or care ye for the enjoying of God If ye do then sure it is unspeakably of your concernment to consider and close with the call offer of this Gospel And if there be any of you that have loved your Idols and after them will go I would desire you in soberness to say to it will ye prefer any Idol to Christ the Creature to the Creator the temporal finfull being of your body to the Eternall well-being of both Soul and Body If ye will then be sure that this Conviction in your Judgement and Conscience will go along with such a cursed Resolution that Christ and Heaven were the absolutly best Bargain The Third Use Serves to Cheer and Solace sinners that have betaken themselves to Christ O All ye who are glad to hear tell of such a Saviour and whose heart is even now content to take him to Renounce all Idolâ— for his sake We have First Remission of sins Noâ— only to offer but even to proclaim freely to you Hâ—â— that believes is past from death to life and shall not comâ— into condemnation There is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh buâ— after the Spirit as it is Rom. 8.1 If ye say what wilâ— become of the sins that we are now under the guilt of I answer they shall be freely forgiven in those dayeâ— and at that time saith the Lord by the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 50.20 The Iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for I will Pardon them whom I reserve When all the books shall be cast open there shall be nothing found to Charge upon a Believing Elect It 's God that justifieth who shall condemn sin as Pardoned to you it was to Abraham and to David and Heaven is made as sure to you as it was to them who are now in it ye have the same Surety the same Saviour the same Covenant Secondly What Promise would ye have I know ye need many but is â—here any of all the Promises that is not in the Covenant Yea ye have the Covenant and Christ both for He is given for a Covenant to you All things are yours as it is 1 Cor. 3. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs Ye have a title and right to all the Promises and may comfort your selves in the assured hope of the Performance of them O! That many were in capacity to receive this consolation Thirdly There may be a wearisome time here and who knows what tryals and Scatterings may overtake you What times may go over you ere ye get another Communion It were best then that ye who seriously mind to cleave to Christ and his Covenant were making for them and therefore lay up this Consolation O Believers Comfort your selves in this Blessed bargain ye have Christ and Remission of sins take the Sacrament as a Seal thereof There is a day coming when ye will drink it new in the Kingdom of Heaven O cheer your selves in the hope of it and for the time in this Resemblance of it when ye see a poor man personating our Lord Jesus Christ and by his warrant offering him to you The day is coming when there shall be no Resemblance no Temple no Ministers no Ordinances no Sacrament but ye shal drink of that new wine the grapes whereof grow on Christ Jesus the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God Even the wine of the Consolation of Glory that will keep you in a continuall Holy Ravishment when all fears shall be wiped away and ye shall have fully Satisfying Blessedness in the Immediat vision and fruition of God And since it is so Let the joy of the Lord be your strength There shall not a Believer come to the Lords Table this day but there is a day coming when he and she shall drink it new without interruption Eternally in the Kingdome of Heaven Father saith Christ John 17. I will that these whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am to Behold my Glory and again the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them and saith he Revel 3.12 I will write upon him my new Name and the Name of the City of my God c. That is the Communication and Participation of the Glory of the head as the Members are Capable Labour O Labour to have your Appetits Sharpened and your longing desires quickened to taste of this new wine It will be fresh strong and sweet there And seeing the Lord allows you such consolation take it and take the Sacrament as a Pledge of it and think with thy self O Believer in Christ what shall I sinfull and unworthy I ere long sit with Christ at his Table in Glory and is this a signe and Representation of it under a vail What manner of Person ought I to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness ought I not to love him much and to continue with him in all his Tentations The Kingdom will Superabundantly make up all The very fiâ—st draught of this new Wine will make sighing and Soâ—row for ever to flee away Let your Souls be comforted in what ye have and in the expectation of what is coming There are great things coming ye have a Rich and liberall a free and frank bestower and notably good Security Come therefore all of you to the due use-making of the Covenant and of the Sacrament in reference to this end And the Lord himself that calls you enable you to come aright that it may be a closed Sealed and confirmed bargain betwixt him and you this day that ye may have ground to say This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it A Thanks-giving Sermon after the Communion the last that ever the Author Preached on such an occasion at Glasgow On Matth. 26. Vers 29. But I say unto you I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vine untill that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom SERMON II. OUr Blessed Lord Jesus is now near taking leave of his Apostles and preparing them for the storm they were to meet with and for the consolation of them and of all his followers to the end of the World He instituteth this Ordinance of the Communion to be His Love-token in His absence that all his People might be confident of his respect to them as well as to those then Present and that all of them might thereby be put and kept in the Remembrance of him till his coming again He hath given them a Massie and marrowy Sum of the Gospel in the words immediatly Preceeding This Cup saith he is my Blood of the New Testament shed for the Remission of the sins of many To
above or of that Cup of the unmixed Wine of the wrath of God having no rest day nor night O Profane Atheist unbeliever hollow hearted Hypocrite and slighter of Christ all thy dayes what a bitter draught will that be when God shall put into thy hand the Cup of his Iâ—dignation which shall be for ever poured out unto thee and shall never come from thy head O drunkard tippler and belly God be think thy self how that draught will go down with thee The Lord with his one foot on Earth and the other on the Sea with an uplifted hand to Heaven hath Sworn that within a litle time shal be no more Ye that are young People may if ye will follow the sight of your eyes and the way of your own hearts and may take you Pleasure in the dayes of your youth but know and remember that God will bring you to Judgement Your time is wearing away and ye will wear away 't is but a litle and ye will hear no moe Preachings and get no moe warnings O take them in time if ye be wise and the Lord perswade you so to do In the Third place The scope both of the advertisment and consolation is observable when he was giving them the Cup and told them that 't is the Cup of the new Testament in his blood He subjoins but I say unto you I will not drink henceforth c. This he doth First because he would send them away advertised and assured that There is a father Ben to speak so a more inward room in Religion then the most lively and comfortable Ordinance here on earth doth afford a higher more intense spiritual Practice then any outward part of Religion He would have them to go away thinking with themselves that all is not done that may be done that all is not win at which may be had that they are not yet Holy enough nor happy enough O place not for Christs sake Place not your Religion here I was at the Sacrament or I got my Communion Wo to that empty sound and to them who lean all their weight on it ye may come and abide here for a time and go away leaving the marrow of the matter behind you all is not yet done A Second Reason is Because he would have them parting and going from the Communion wiâ—h some thoughts of death of their approaching change and passing out of time and of Eternity it s quickly Marching upon them And indeed it were good going from the Communion and from every other Ordinance with such thoughts as these Death is fast coming on me and I will be soon gone saith our Lord on the matter to the Disciples and ye will ere long follow me and it is not these Ordinances that will be your life in Eternity It were good that we came to the Lordâ— Table to Preaching and Prayer and went away as dieing Men and Women this would lay much of our Pride deaden us to the world and make us endeavouâ— to hold a loose gripe of all things in it and would keeâ— us under the kindly sense of the changeableness uncertainty and short continuance of them all and might be of more use and worth to us then Twenâ—ie thanksgiving Sermons Labour then to go from every Ordinance as if ye were not to enjoy another A Third Reason may be that our Lord would lead in his followers 〈◊〉 look after some stamp of Heaven and of the Glorious Communion that is a coming on their Spirits and would have them going from the Ordinances with such thoughts Alace we have very few such thoughts Our conversation is very litle or not at all in Heaven Believers think and think often that these rags will be rent off us and we shall be set down on the Throne with Christ in that Rayment of needle work It is a good token wheâ— a person goes from a Cummunion from Preaching and Prayer more Divine and Heavenly making every Ordinance the step of a stair as it were to ascend upward having a high esteem of Heaven and a heaâ— Holily eager and bent on it content nay desirous 〈◊〉 be gone when ever He shall see it meet and till theâ— putting on and keeping on the whole armour of God making for one assault of temptation afâ—er another Heavenly in his whole walk in his actions words and thoughts As ye would not O Believers interrupt your Communion with God in Christ study to be Heavenly in your Conversation for saith the Apostle Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour Lay aside as if be had said your earthly mindedness away with that and be Heavenly in your conversation for our Conversation is such and Believers are described to be such as Love Christs appearing A Fourth Reason May be that our Lord would hearten Comfort his Disciples and send them away refreshed Yea it is to Root out their unbelief and to arm them against approaching tryals So then First our Lord Jesus Allows Believers to go from the Communion and proportionally from every Ordinance rightly come to cheerfull and Comforted and therefore he leaves them with this word telling them that they will have hard and sad days but withall bids them cheer themselves in the assured expectation of a day coming when He and they shall drink the Wine new in Heaven Our Lord would have Believers humble thinking on Death and making ready for it dayly yet be would not have them tortured with the thoughts of it but cheerfull as having his joy for their strength though he would not have their joy carnal but Heavenly And it is the Token of a right Communicant and of a good hearer of the word when a Person goes away from it more Spiritually cheered and more Heavenly minded Secondly There is nothing that can be more heartsome cheering and refreshing to the Believer then the lively hope of Communion and of a seat on the Throne in Heaven with Christ and it is the mark and Character of a believer to have no lower designe Alace for the sensless way of hearing the word and of Communicating customary to many who have no other nor higher designe then to partake of the outward Ordinance 't is a heart some thing to go from the Table of the Lord with this sweet and Heavenly Meditation Christ and I will meet again ere long at a table in Heaven Thirdly The thoughts of Heaven and the hope thereof may well sustain a Believe were there never so many BUTS and wants in their present condition here We will not be long together saith He there will be a scattering but this may keep you from weeping and mourning as those who have no hope that the day cometh when we shall meet again and never part asunder It is really a wonder that we have so few serious and solacing thoughts of coming to Heaven there are none who look for a Rich loading coming home by Sea but they will comfort themselves in the expectation of it why do we not then comfort our selves in the thoughts of Heaven since we profess to have a hope of being there even because we are carnal and earthly and it sayes that we either think Heaven litle worth or that it is an insufficient and unvalid right that is to be had to it or that we do not really believe it all the silver and gold in the world comforts not a poor body because he hath no hope to come by it So there are not a few hearers of the Gospel who bear much of Heaven and of the hope of it that never refresheth them A Fifth Reason may be to waken up longing desires and to sharpen and put an edge upon an appetit in his followers after Heaven and to teach them not to place their happiness in any thing on this side Heaven otherwise he would never have put their Satisfaction to a term so far off but he over-leaps to speak so with reverence all the brave days that they had and were to have here and gives them this for their full satisfaction that the day is a coming when he will drink the Wine new with them in his Fathers Kingdom and would have them in their flight never resting nor sitting down till they be there For he sends them away hungering for that Communion-Table And we would yet again exhort and beseech you to study to be in case to go from the Communion and from every Sermon having some serious thoughts of Heaven and longings for it believing that the day the joyfull day is coming when Christ and ye will meet and never shed or separat again when ye shall be with him where he is and be set with him at his Table and on his Throne never to rise off it any more again Blessed be God that that desirable day is coming Believers in Christ cheer your selves in the hope of it If there be any of you as Alace I fear there be very many that relish not this blessed change there is a sad and Sorrowful change before you O be busie very busie to have your interest in Christ and the hope of Heaven well secured by Union and Communion with him here that so ye may have the well grounded hope of Heaven and may frequently draw Comfort from it And O that we could sunder so The litle inch and moment of time that we have will soon and very quickly wear away and be at an end Go then my dear friends wiâ—h this well fixed resolution that ye must needs in Gods own way have Heaven and be eternally happy in the Soul-satisfieing and ravishing enjoyment of that fullest and sweetest never to be interrupted Communion that will be there And thank God and Christ the Mediator for the least measure of the well grounded hope of it and make it your business to have your Conversation suited to and smelling strong of that blessed hope FINIS
TRUE TO THE END FIDES PROBATA CORONAT The Right honble Patrick Hume Earl of Marchmont Viscount of Blasonberry Lord Polwart◠〈◊〉 Polwarth c Lord High Chancelor of Scotland ◠1702. EX LIBRIS F.S. FERGUSON THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST And Of GRACE and GLORY In and thorow HIM Diligently Searched into Clearly Unfolded and Comfortably holden forth in Fourteen Rich Gospel SERMONS Preached on several TEXTS at Communions in Glasgow By the late pious and Powerful Gospel Preacher in that City Mr. JAMES DURHAM 2 Joh. 1.3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 10 16. The Cup of Blessing which we blesse is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ GLASGOW Printed by Robert Sanders one of His Majesties Printers 1685. THE Epistle Dedicatorie and Prefatorie To all Christians seriously pursuing Conformity unto Christ and panting after Communion with God in him Particularly the Inhabitants of the City of Glasgow that are such And in speciall to Mistress Durham the Famous Authors worthy Relict and my Sister in Law who hath had a singular care to preserve her deceased Husbands Lectures and Sermons that they might be made forth-coming for the Publick use and Edification of the Church Dear Friends ADAM in Innocency and Integrity was in a state of perfect friendship with God of beautifull conformity to His Image and of sweetly Comfortable Communion with him But alace he continued very short time in that excellent state for the entering in of sin by his Transgressing the Law and condition of the Covenant of works quite brake off the friendship utterly disfigured and defaced the conformity and altogether interrupted and put a stop to the Communion He having thereby run himself and his Posterity under a forfeiture of that desireable state and of all the Precious Priviledges annexed to it under which himself and they had lyen Eternally had not God in the depth of his infinit wisdom and in the exceeding and unsearchable Riches of his free Grace and Mercy devised and found out a way for taking off that forfeiture By sending his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law who according to the Covenant of Redemption treated and Transacted finally concluded and agreed betwixt Jehovah and him having made a most costly but a most Compleat Satisfaction to Provoked Divine Justice for the debt of the Elect In whose room for that end he did surrogat and substitute himself as their Surety and Cautioner hath reestablished the friendship restored the Conformity and recovered the Communion of which Glad tidings of great joy Publication is made in the Preached Gospel the Tabernacle of the Ordinances whereof is reared up amongst men that thereby God the Lord may dwell among them These Ordinances in their institution and nature being means of Communion and fellowship betwixt God and men Amongst which Divinely instituted Ordinances that of the Lords Supper beareth expressly the name of the Communion because often and ordinarily the greatest measures and highest degrees of Communion with God in Christ attainable by sojourning and militant Saints here on Earth are win at in the Participation of that Ordinance the great pledge and love-token of our dieing Lords dearest respect to his Disciples and followers calling and oblidging them in the use thereof to a Solemn Commemoration of him and of his love and to a Publick and avouched Declaration of his Death till he come again Therefore is it beyond all other Gospell Ordinances as it were railed about with such injunctions Cautions and warnings with such terrible threatnings with such intimations of Atrocious Guilt and with such denounciations of formidable Judgements against unworthy Communicants Thunder and Lightnings as it were being spoken against such The desirable deceased Author of these few following Sermons Preached at Communions used at such occasions to endeavour through Grace to rouse and work up himself to such a Divineness of frame as very much suited the Spiritual state and Majesty of that Ordinance greatly fearing lest himself or any of the People to whom he dispensed the same should fall under the grievous Guilt of the Body and Blood of the Lord then in a manner his face shone as being in the mount of Communion and fellowship with God and at some of those Solemn and sweet Occasions he spake some way as a man that had been in Heaven Commending Jesus Christ making a Glorious display of the Banner of free Grace holding forth the Riches of it very clearly and convincingly and bringing the offers thereof very low wonderfully low So that in hearing some of these Sermons Particularly that on Matth. 22. I was made to think that the Rope or Cord of the Offer of Salvation was let down and hung so low to sinners that those of the lowest stature amongst them all though but as Pygmees might have catcht hold of it who through Grace had any mind to do so and so home so vehemently and urgently pressed on so sweet and easie terms to be embraced that I have been sometimes made to wonder how the hearers could refuse or shift them But there is no saving Belief of this report made by Prophets Apostles Yea or by Blessed Jesus himself in his own Personall Ministrie but where the arm of the Lord is Revealed No man can or will invite beseech and Perswade who will if it were not only men but even Angels come to the Son except the Father that sent him draw him There is no moving here without a pull of Ommipotencie none are nor can be willing to yeeld themselves to Christ till the day of his Power Pass on their hearts till then they will sit the most pressing calls of the Gospel but then they can sit no longer they must they will rise then and run after him they will then as the word signifies make a free will Offering of themselves to thim however inexortable and inflexible they had shewed themselves before they will then make an absolute entire universall unexceptioned and Irreversible Surrender and Resignation of themselves to him to be at his dispose to be guided and saved by him in his own way I know the Remembrance of those Communion Sabbaths High Sabbaths and other ordinary Sabbaths and week days wherein you Sister and other Serious seekers of God in Glasgow in particular heard the joyfull sound walked in the light of Gods Countenance and Rejoiced in his Name all the day Living in a Holy croud of Precious Gospel-Ordinances and having as it were the Heavenly Manna of the Gospel falling abundantly about your Camp every day making you think and say that it was good to be there is this day sweet and Savoury to you and helps you in a good measure to keep up
a suitable and due esteem of fellowship and Communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ which is commended and indeared to your Souls and to the Souls of others of the Lords People by the choice rare excellent and non-such Nature and Properties of it It being found by you all Priviledged with admission to the enjoyment thereof in your experience to be First most Real and no Chimerical fancy or a thing that hath no being but in the deluded imagination of the Person and truly saith the Apostle John 1 Jon. 1.3 Our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ It hath most reall effects though Spiritual Gracious Souls being more lively affected with them then their very external Senses are by the rarest and most Remarkable Objects And no doubt the more Spiritual any thing is It hath in it the greater reality and worketh the more Powerfully and efficaciously It is uncontrovertible and quite removed from all reach of rational debate that God is the greatest reality and by Proportion Communion with God Whereby nearest and closest Approaches are made to him must be very real marvellous are the effects of this Communion and that your Souls know right well as the Psalmist speaketh Psal 139 14. in another case Secondly It is an Awfull Fellowship and full of dread It impresseth the Soul with a deep yet kindly veneration of the Glorious Majesty of the great and Holy God Who as it is said Psal 89. vers 7. Is greatly to be feared in the assemblies of his Saints where they are admitted to fellowship with him and to be had in reverence by all that are about him When Jacob was admitted to very near Communion with him Gen. 28. He saith vers 16. Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware and vers 17. It is said of him that he was afraid and said how dreadfull is this Place this is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven Familiarity here breeds no contempt nor is it waited with any neglect or forgetfulness to keep due distance Thirdly It is a deeply humbling and Holily Self debasing Fellowship as appears in Abraham Gen. 18. who being as Gods speciall friend admitted to talk with him at an unusuall and extraordinary rate of Familiaritie Yet interlines as it were his discourse almost in every period of it with deeply self debasing acknowledgements of his being but dust and ashes and deprecatings of Gods anger for his taking upon him to speak to Him betwixt whom and himself there was so infinitly vast a disproportion so the Prophet Isaiah when he hath that Glorious Vision of the Majestie of God Chap. 6. and hears the Seraphims those purely intellectuall Creatures having their faces covered with their wings as not being able to behold the Brightness of the Glory of the most absolutely perfect Holiness of God crying in a transport of admiration each to another Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God of Hosts the Earth is full of his Glory he saith Wo's me for I am undone Because I am a man of unclean lips and dwel in the midst of a People of Polluted lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts So also Job non-such in his time according to Divine testimony when he is admitted to unusual nearness to God saith Chap. 42. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eye seeth Thee wherefore I abhore my self and repent in dust and ashes The nearest approaches to that light wherein there is no darkness at all make the clearest discoveries of the most eminent Saints their unworthiness nothingness and vileness Fourthly It is a Transforming Fellowship and assimilats the Person Priviledged with admission to it to Him that is conversed with and with whom Fellowship is attained unto there is no real Communion with him but the result of it is some lineament of further likeness to him We all saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 Beholding the Glory of the Lord as in a Glass are changed or transformed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord Communion with and conformity to God have mutual influence and Reciprocall force each upon other the more Communion with him the more likeness and conformity to him the more likeness to him the more Communion with him litle Communion with him makes litle conformity to him and litle conformity to him cannot but be attended with litle Communion with him Fifthly It is a wonderful Fellowship a fellowship that even sometimes transports in a manner the Soul admitted to it especially in any more then Ordinary way or measure into a sort of Rapture and extasy of Admiration at it Thus it did David 2 Sa. 7.18 Who saith he am I O Lord and what is my Fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto and Solomon who being very near to God in that Solemn prayer of his at the Dedication of the Temple saith 1 Kings 8.27 But will God indeed dwell with men on earth and as it is 2 Chron. 6. vers 18. But will God in very deed dwell with men on Earth And indeed it is no great wonder that it be greatly wondered at that the Infinitly great and Holy God who inhabiteth Eternity and the High and Lofty one who dweleth in the High and Holy Place and is surrounded and attended there with an Innumerable Company of Angels of the Spirits of Just men made Perfect all of them shining in light and burning in zeal none of them wearying to do him service should humble himself so far and stoop so low so very low as to dwell also an Emphatick also with sinful though humble and contrit Creatures who dwell in Cottages of clay and whose habitation is in the dust that he who is of purer eyes then that he can behold iniquity without detestation and abhorrency should yet humble himself not only to Behold but with delight to dwell and keep fellowship with them who are in a great measure unholy and have so much of that dwelling in them which his Soul hates that the Glorious Persons of the dreadful and adorable God head should come and make their abode with such in whom so great a Remainder of stinking unmortified Corruption hath still its abode that infinitly pure and perfect light should have fellowship with them in whom there is so much darkness Sixthly It is an estranging fellowship from all Idols and what ever is displeasing to God and estranging from him Accordingly Ephraim being brought near to him saith Hos 14. v. 8. what have I to do any more with Idols and the people of God supposed to be in a good Spiritual frame and near to him say Isai 30 22. to every Idol which they cast away as a menstruous Cloth with Indignation and abhorrency get thee hence and David being admitted to very near Communion with God Psal 6. saith v. 8. To wicked men